Wishful Thinking: A Virtual Season 6
by willynilly23
Summary: Here is my personal wish for what could have been in Season 6. If you have ever read my fic you should have an idea what to expect. (hint: Walkerson)
1. Can't Stand Losing You Act 1

Notes: I was originally going to write a virtual Season 6 with new stories each week, but there hasn't been a ton of CA fic out there (thanks so much to those of you that are writing!) so I am going to start publishing chapters instead. Each "story" will have 5 chapters and the titles are all song titles…..you get to figure out by whom.

This picks up exactly where the show left off and since there will not be a season 6 I can take it any which way I want. I hope you enjoy.

***555***

Annie opened her eyes and Auggie was smiling at her, she returned the smile, her mind awash with all the images that just passed by, the moments over the past five years that meant the most to her all had one thing in common.

"Yeah?" Auggie asked in response to her declaration of "Got it".

His hands were still on her shoulders and she felt him loosen his grip, her own hands came up quickly to hold him there.

"Don't go," she said.

"I can probably stay for that tea," he shrugged.

"No, I mean sure we can have tea, but I mean don't go with Natasha. Don't leave. Me. Don't leave me again," Annie sighed.

"Annie…." Auggie's face became guarded.

"I know I have no right to ask, I have no right to expect you to still care about me, but I let you walk away before. I let you leave to go after Parker, twice, and I can't Auggie, I can't lose you again."

"Annie," he hung his head, but his hands were still on her arms, one thumb rubbing softly against her thin shirt.

"You told me to close my eyes once before, to put all the noisy thoughts out of my head, remember?"

"Like blowing out a birthday candle," he grinned.

"What I saw that day in Amsterdam is what I just saw when I closed my eyes now, when I looked inside my heart. When I really let myself look Auggie, I see you."

"I see you too. Which is odd since I have never actually seen you," he puzzled.

"Then please don't leave," She slid her hands along his arms, up to his shoulders and pulled him to her body, held him close felt him sigh against her neck, felt the length of his eyelashes as his eyes slipped shut.

"OK, but you have to tell Natasha," he chuckled.

"I love you, but I am not crazy," Annie teased.

"I love you too."

"I know," she smiled and held on tighter.

***555***

Annie took the last sip of her cooling tea, trying to observe the remaining evidence of Auggie's injuries without him noticing her scrutiny.

"How are your ribs?" she finally asked out loud.

"Healing," he shrugged.

"Are you really OK?" she wasn't necessarily asking about his body.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"And you really want to leave the agency?" she picked at the paper tab on her tea bag.

"I want to have a full life Annie, I want to have a healthy relationship, I want to put that first just like you said last year. I am a company man, you know that, but if it means giving up everything else, I would walk away. I was willing to walk away for Tash, I would certainly walk away for you."

"What if I said I might be walking back."

"To the agency?" he looked up from his tea surprised.

"Joan made me an interesting offer," Annie shrugged, he could hear the fabric of her shirt snap with static electricity.

"What about your heart?"

"We only talked briefly, but she seemed open to a compromise."

"There are treatments," he started and she smiled, of course he did his research.

"I know and I am considering my options. I've had a lot to consider recently."

"Yeah."

"McQuaid asked me to marry him," she blurted out.

"Wow, the guy has balls I will give him that."

"It wasn't the worst offer I ever received," Annie defended.

"He's a good man, I told you that and I believe it, but when you close your eyes, you see me," he said slightly territorial.

"I do," she nodded. "I think he knows that too, when I left him in Argentina he seemed resigned to that, but I should probably give him a definitive answer."

"The answer is no, right?" Auggie smirked.

Annie just laughed.

"Just want to be perfectly clear," he placed his hand out and slid it, palm up, across the small counter between them.

She put her smaller hand in his and watched as each of his long fingers closed over her, the rough pads of his fingertips scratchy against her soft skin. Auggie had touched her so many times, from necessity to desire, and in every instance it had made her breath hitch.

"I want to be a team again, in every way. If I go back to Joan will you go with me?"

"Yes," he nodded. "Can we take a little time first? Get us back?"

"I'd like that," she moved back to his side, abandoning the counter between them.

"Good," he said suddenly breathless as her body slid against his again.

"I need to see Danielle too," she said, her voice strangled.

He nodded.

"Will you come with me?"

He nodded again.

"I need you Auggie, I never need anyone, but I need you," she said and his head shot up and the look on his face was as if a ghost had appeared to him.

"What?" she brushed his bangs back and soothed the worry lines on his forehead.

"I said that to you once, that exact thing."

"You did?" she couldn't recall such a declaration.

"You were in a coma at the time, but it was exactly that."

She kissed him then, softly at first and with building want. His hands moved over her narrow back, finding her long hair and tangling there as their mouths moved eagerly. Finally, she pulled back enough to breathe, keeping their foreheads connected.

TBC…


	2. Can't Stand Losing You Act 2

Notes: Thanks so much for the lovely reviews! Also, I have no idea what time of year it was in the CA universe, so I am setting this story as if the last episode actually happened on the night it aired, December 18th.

Can't Stand Losing You – Act 2

Auggie slid the door to the loft open and listened intently to gauge Tash's whereabouts. He could hear loud typing, but he couldn't smell her perfume so he assumed she was up in the bedroom.

"Auggie?" she called as she looked up from the screen.

"Yeah, it's me," he waved from the doorway.

"I ate without you," she said as she padded closer.

"That's OK."

"What's wrong with you?" she asked as she saw the guarded look on his face.

"We should talk."

"About what?" she asked, but she clearly understood the direction the conversation was headed.

"Us."

"Why do I think there is no us all of a sudden?" she retreated back from him, pulling the sleeves of her sweater down to cover her hands defensively.

"Tash, we've been through a lot and we go back a long time, but…"

"You don't love me," she crossed her arms adding to her defensive position.

"I do love you Tash, I will always love you," he said honestly.

She nodded, he missed it and had no idea what her face was revealing.

"If this is it, this is it," she said, her voice steady.

Auggie didn't reply, he waited for her to elaborate.

"I am not ever taking you back again. I will not help the CIA and I will not be the girl you bed when Annie breaks your heart again."

He was momentarily shocked that she knew the score so easily, but Tash was no fool.

"Of course," he agreed.

"If this is good-bye, it is really good-bye," she reiterated.

"I thought the night you jumped off that train was the last time I would ever see you, this past year, all of it, the good and the bad, was important to me."

"Yeah," she sighed and tried to keep the tears out of her voice. "Even then, on the train, you loved her."

"Maybe," Auggie admitted.

"You let your blindness act as a shield, you can't jump off a train, you can't leave the CIA, you can't leave DC it's what you know since you lost your vision, but it's bullshit. You are incapable of leaving Annie, even when she has left you over and over," Tash wanted to be angry, but really she was just sad.

"We've both done some leaving, we've both hurt the other one out of some sense of self defense or misguided protection, but honestly I don't want to talk about Annie. I want to say good-bye, I want you to know how special you are…"

"Please don't," Tash cut him off and walked back towards the bed. "Luckily I didn't have much to begin with and I had started packing for our trip, I'll be gone in a minute."

Auggie closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall.

***555***

Annie looked up from her glass of wine as a rush of cold air accompanied Ryan McQuaid into the little bar she texted him to meet her at.

"Hey," he smiled.

"Hey," she returned the smile as he sat.

"Everything OK?"

"That is a bit of a loaded question. Our everything is a whole lot more than most people's," she grinned.

"Annie, I meant what I said in Argentina. I will marry you tonight, let's do it, start over and get the hell out of this town. We can start over anywhere, London, Paris, Tokyo, you name it."

"Ryan," she sighed.

"You need someone Annie, you can't keep going alone like this."

"You're right about that," she nodded. "I do need someone."

"But it isn't me?" he hazarded a guess.

Annie just shook her head.

"Does he know you feel this way?" Ryan couldn't bring himself to say the other man's name.

"Yes."

"So this is a break up beer?" he asked as the waitress appeared with his IPA.

"It is a thank you beer, for everything you have done for me this year Ryan. You kept me going, you saved my life on more than one occasion, you didn't hesitate to try and save Auggie…"

"He managed just fine on his own it turns out," Ryan grimaced.

"He is resourceful," Annie smiled and tried to temper her response.

"I'm not a fool, Annie, I knew how much he meant to you. I just really thought you were over."

"We did too, but we aren't. There is more to our story and we owe it to each other to give it the attention it deserves."

"So I lost a girlfriend, did I lose an employee too?"

"Last I knew you had bigger problems at McQuaid than me?"

"We'll get back on our feet and there will always be a place for someone as smart and talented as you are Annie Walker."

"Our professional paths are sure to cross again Ryan, but at this very moment I am going to take a couple weeks off. See my sister, take care of my shit."

"It has been something else Annie, this ride with you. I hope you're happy, whatever comes next."

"You too," she raised her glass and smiled when he clinked his own against it.

***555***

"Annie," Arthur smiled when he answered the door.

"Sorry to come by so late, but Joan said it was OK?" Annie both said and asked as she entered the Campbell's foyer.

"Of course, she's just checking on Mack, he's teething and doesn't seem to enjoy sleep as much as the rest of us. Drink? Coffee? We have both."

"Coffee would be great," Annie nodded as she took the indicated seat in the living room.

Joan appeared on the stairs and smiled at the young woman sitting on her couch.

"Annie, nice to see you," she said as she made her way into the room, baby monitor in hand.

"Is the baby OK?" Annie asked as she indicated the now quiet monitor.

"Just teething, he's fine," Joan nodded and sat as Arthur appeared with coffee service for two.

"I'll be upstairs," he said as he bid both woman good-bye.

"There was a time, a brief time really, when I knew how you would respond to almost anything Annie. You grew so fast, at the agency, I didn't have a chance to keep up and next thing I knew I had lost you," Joan admitted in a rush.

"There were a lot of extenuating circumstances, Joan."

"There always are in our business, but I should have kept up better, I should have been a better leader. I want to be that leader now. This task force is a great opportunity for me and you to do some really important work, to call more of the shots and I know how much you like calling the shots, Annie."

Annie grinned and nodded.

"I hope that means you are interested in joining me."

"I have a couple of requests. I know I should be grateful to have this opportunity, but there are a few things I need."

"OK, like what?" Joan sipped her coffee and sat back confident she could give Annie anything she wanted.

"I would like a couple weeks now to visit my sister and regroup after the Belenko mission. I am sure you want to hit the ground running, but I need this time."

"No problem. I do want to hit the ground running, but you remember this is still the government we are talking about, it will take weeks to get everything in order. The holidays are just around the corner," Joan indicated the tastefully decorated tree in the corner, "I think we can safely wait until after the New Year to begin"

"Great. I want to know that my heart condition will not prevent you from giving me the work that is needed. I do not want to be a glorified secretary," Annie was saving her ace in the hole for last.

"Annie, I want you to be healthy and safe. I will not baby you, but I would also like a return promise that you will consider the treatment options available, not just for your job but for yourself," Joan sounded more and more like a mom every day.

"I will, I am going to use some of that time off to do just that. Talk to Danielle and …" she almost said Auggie giving away her final point, "make a decision."

"Good," Joan took in the Annie in front of her, she looked relaxed in a way she hadn't all year. "Anything else?"

"I have been working on my own for a while, Ryan was a helpful partner this year, but you know who my real partner is and I want him with us on this."

"Annie, Auggie is gone, he resigned," Joan began carefully.

"I know. I talked him out of that. He'll come back with me, if you want him," Annie said with a smirk as if Joan would ever not want Auggie on her team.

"Wow. You two have been through a lot, can you do this? Work together again? I mean, I never saw two people click like you two did from the very beginning, but time has passed, things have happened."

"I don't want to do the work without him. I don't want to live without him, Joan."

"So Tash?"

"He talked to her tonight. I talked to Ryan. Auggie and I are leaving for California tomorrow, visit with Danielle and then a week in Hawaii. We will be back to work right after the New Year. If you want us?"

TBC


	3. Can't Stand Losing You Act 3

Can't Stand Losing You Act 3

"Hey," Auggie slipped his earpiece in and reclined back on the couch.

"Hey," Annie replied as she started the car.

"How'd it go on your end?"

"Fine. Ryan is fine, Joan is intrigued. You?"

"I am still breathing and have all of my limbs," he chuckled.

"Tash is volatile, but she cares about you Auggie, she would never physically harm you," Annie left it open for interpretation if Tash would cause any other harm.

"She wasn't entirely shocked."

"Mmmm, neither was Ryan. Or Joan. Apparently we're not such good spies after all," she teased.

"You want to come over?"

"More than anything, but I have to pack and put a few things in order for the trip."

"Anything else from Danielle?"

"Just that email I sent you, she's willing to meet us at a restaurant and hear us out. Auggie this is either going to be really good or really bad."

"We'll get through it either way," he promised.

"I'll be there bright and early to pick you up."

"I'll be ready. Try to get some sleep Walker," Auggie hung up without saying good-bye.

***555***

"Want me to shower first?" Auggie asked as Annie paced the lovely San Francisco hotel room.

"Sure. I'm going to go get a couple glasses of wine from the lobby reception," Annie came up with something to do to try and distract herself from dinner.

"OK, but save one for me, showing up drunk to meet Danielle might be a bad idea," Auggie grinned and headed to the bathroom.

When Annie returned with 2 glasses of wine and some snacks she was instantly assaulted by the smell of pine emanating from the bathroom. Auggie had left the door open, something he always did that was either a sign of his comfort around her or his forgetting that he was the only one who was blind.

The pine smell was like a balm to Annie's soul, a missing piece she had forgotten about until just now. Her olfactory memories washed over her and left her feeling more relaxed than she had been since they landed.

"Wine's here," she called cheerfully.

"Be right out," Auggie replied.

Annie arranged the snack on a side table in the living area of the room and was distracted wiping up a bit of spilled wine, not realizing Auggie was in the room until he was almost right behind her. In a towel. Warm and wet and smelling of pine.

"Oh, hi," Annie said flustered.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," Auggie replied, his voice low and deep.

"I didn't, umm, I didn't hear you," Annie stumbled on her words.

Annie had seen Auggie just recently without his shirt on, it was a moment of necessity though, a moment of stress and fear and pain. Now, here he was in their hotel room, mostly healed and looking very good.

"Sorry," he repeated, his voice softer.

"No it's….fine. Do you want a drink?" she asked as she cleared her own suddenly dry throat.

"Sure," he tilted his head to one side, his eyes cast up through his dark lashes and the long column of his neck beckoned to her.

She had kissed him yesterday, in her small kitchen, but the need to repeat the action was too great. She picked up the glass of wine and then put it down again.

"I need….can I?...Auggie," his name a breath on her lips as she crossed just a few feet of hotel carpet and pulled him in to a kiss.

"Better than wine," Auggie declared when she broke away for a breath.

It was a quick breath and she recaptured his lips, his hands pulling her soft cashmere covered torso against the silk of his skin. Annie wanted nothing more than to pull off her own clothes and wrap herself in Auggie's warmth completely, but luckily Auggie held a small rational part of his brain intact.

"Annie…." He managed between deep sweet kisses. "Annie…" he nearly lost his resolve as her cool fingers moved along the rolled edge of the towel at his waist.

"We shouldn't do this…." he fought out the words against every desire he had.

Annie froze in his arms, he felt her go stiff.

"I mean right now, we shouldn't do this right now. We're meeting Danielle in just over an hour. I don't want to rush," he kissed along her jaw and whispered the final word in her ear sending a shiver to her toes.

She nodded, words not coming to mind, and stepped back just a bit to appreciate his wet swollen lips from a different angle.

"Yeah," she finally managed and stepped back entirely and retrieved the wine.

Auggie took his wine and sipped it. Annie carried hers with her.

"I'm going to go take a cold shower now, you should probably be wearing clothes when I come out," she laughed over her shoulder.

"Yes Dear," he grinned and finished the wine.

***555***

"Do I look OK?" Auggie asked as he brushed his bangs into the messy chaos he preferred for his hair.

"You have never asked me that question. Are you planning to hit on my sister?" Annie arched an eyebrow at him.

"No, I don't mean that. I mean, my face, the injuries. I don't want to scare Danielle. I know the swelling has gone down and the cuts are healed, but do I look normal?"

"You still have some color in your bruises, not nearly as vivid as they were, your cuts are pretty much hidden by your bangs," Annie re-mussed his bangs for good measure. "You look beautiful."

"OK," he dropped his head embarrassed by the word.

"Of course, I am a terrible judge. I thought you looked beautiful dirty and bloody coming out of that hellhole in Grozny. I thought you were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and I have seen actual Faberge Eggs," Annie had to joke to keep from crying.

"Well Danielle might haul off and whack me when she sees me anyway, so I may have some new bruises before dinner is over," Auggie cringed.

"Danielle loves you."

"Maybe once, but while you made the choice to go dark, I was the one who lied to her. On more than one occasion."

"I'm sorry you had to do that," Annie held one of his hands in both of hers and squeezed.

"We both have a lot of things to be sorry for Annie."

"I know. We'll get past them," she squeezed again.

"And so will you and Danielle," Auggie squeezed back.

"Nice segue Mr. Anderson. Now, how do I look?" she asked as she put his hand on her hip.

***555***

The restaurant wasn't very crowded and Annie and Auggie arrived early to stake out a spot at the bar. A good spy always wanted eyes on the scene first. Annie led them to a couple bar stools and ordered more wine.

Auggie could feel Annie's knee bouncing and found it easily, stilling it with his hand, allowing his thumb to rub along the inside of her knee, the friction of stockings and his callused thumb got Annie's attention.

"I'm OK," she promised.

Just as she finished her glass of wine Annie saw her.

"She's here."

"How does she look?" Auggie asked, now at attention.

"Wonderful," Annie whispered.

"Has she seen us yet?"

"No, she's looking at her phone, she's early."

"Should we go over there?"

"She'll find us, it's better if she comes to us, less ambushy."

Auggie just nodded, Annie was going into mission mode, but that wasn't all bad. Just then Danielle looked up from her phone and scanned the restaurant. As soon as she saw Annie their eyes locked.

"She found us," Annie murmured and Auggie stood, his hand warm on her back.

Danielle was seemingly frozen for a moment, 30 seconds maybe and then she began to move across the room, her eyes never leaving Annie until she was right there in front of her, wrapping her arms around her and pulling her close. Auggie allowed Annie to be pulled away from his touch, a small smile on his face. When Danielle let go both women had tears in their eyes.

"This was a mistake," Danielle stuttered.

"No," Annie shook her head vehemently.

"No, no, not coming to see you, but doing this publicly. There is no way I am getting through this without making a scene," Danielle dabbed at her already smudged mascara.

"Let's go back to the hotel, we can get room service," Auggie suggested and Danielle finally looked away from Annie.

"Auggie, my god I didn't even see you," she shook her head.

"That makes two of us," he quipped.

"But it marks the first time someone has not noticed Auggie in a room," Annie joined in.

"This is too much," Danielle sighed.

TBC


	4. Can't Stand Losing You Act 4

Annie and Auggie's hotel room was quite spacious with plenty of room for them to eat and be comfortable. Annie ordered tons of food and wine and cleared off some surfaces for it to go when it arrived, keeping herself busy.

"This is weird, right?" Danielle asked as Auggie fussed with the cuff of his suit coat.

"Pretty weird," he agreed.

"I mean how often do people come back from the dead?"

"More often than you would think," Auggie cringed.

Annie had finally exhausted all the busy work she could manufacture and had to sit across from her sister and face the music.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions…."

"Only like a million," Danielle interrupted.

"You have to understand that I cannot tell you everything, but I will tell you everything that I can," Annie sounded an awful lot like she did the day she read Danielle in.

"OK," Danielle nodded.

"Do you remember Jai Wilcox?"

"Yes, Jai is not someone people forget," Danielle smiled.

"You asked me about his death? I still can't talk about it, but suffice it to say it was more than a rock climbing accident," Annie spoke slowly and Danielle nodded as she unfurled a story about Henry Wilcox and the atrocities he committed and the people he threatened.

"He was threatening a lot of people, my boss and her husband, he was threatening Auggie," Annie's voice broke on Auggie's name.

"Your voice still changes when you talk about him," Danielle smiled through a sheen of tears.

"I was determined to stop him and as you know a determined Annie sometimes makes rash decisions," she smiled back.

"Yes, but faking your own death is a little different than trying to ride your bike off a pier. How could you let us think you were dead?" she turned to Auggie then for solidarity.

Auggie did not know Danielle was including him in the we, thinking instead she meant her and the girls, but Annie saw the confusion and knew she was about to throw Auggie under the bus.

"Almost everyone had to believe I was dead in order to convince Henry. If too many people knew the truth it would be dangerous, for me and for them," Annie eased into the truth.

"Almost everyone? So who knew you were alive?"

"Three people: my boss who was involved in the incident to cover it up, a friend who helped get me out and Auggie."

Danielle was silent and Auggie looked towards Annie with concern. He was right to be concerned as Annie saw the pain wash over Danielle's face.

"You called me on the phone and told me she was dead, you actively lied to me. What she did was terrible, but what you did was , it was, inhumane," Danielle stood and then sat and then stood again.

"I know," Auggie began, "and believe me it was incredibly hard for me, Danielle. For the record I was opposed to the whole plan, but I was outvoted and once Annie went through with it, I had to carry out my part, I had to do everything in my limited ability to keep her safe. The CIA was going to call you one way or the other, I thought it would be easier coming from me."

"Easier? Easier? Do you two even remember what being a real person is like? Do you have any idea…." Danielle's tirade was interrupted by a knock at the door announcing their dinner had arrived, she used the distraction to excuse herself to the bathroom.

Annie opened the door, schooling her features into something resembling cheerful for the room service attendant. He arranged the trays and wine bucket and smiled at Annie as she signed the slip. Danielle was still in the bathroom.

"Come here," Auggie said softly holding a hand out.

Annie stood in front of him, her head hung, but took his offered hand in her own, laced their fingers together.

"Not the best start to our vacation," she laughed dryly.

"We knew this would be hard. She hasn't left yet, we just go slow, take our time. This is worth getting right," he smiled.

"I'm learning that is true about a lot of things."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she smiled.

The door opened then and Danielle emerged looking puffy, but calm.

"Will you stay and eat?" Annie asked.

"Sure," Danielle replied.

Auggie could feel Annie relax her grip on his hand.

"Thank you," she said sincerely.

***555***

"You want the rest of my potatoes?" Annie asked Auggie as she moved them to his plate.

"Trying to fatten me up?" he smirked.

"Yes, you could use a few extra calories," she said honestly.

"I'm fine," he assured her, "but I'll eat your potatoes."

"Why does Auggie need calories?" Danielle asked nervously.

"I don't, I'm fine," he looked up and smiled.

Annie tried to brush off her comment too but she thought Auggie still looked a little gaunt after his time with Belenko.

"More secrets?" Danielle pushed the remains of her salmon around on her plate.

"In our lives it seems there are always more secrets," Annie admitted.

"Danielle, do you have any questions for me?" Auggie asked.

"No," she said sadly.

"Then I am going to leave you two alone," Auggie stood from the small table.

"You don't have to go," Annie stood as well.

He found her neck with his hand, pulled her close and rested his forehead against hers.

"I'll just be a phone call away. You have more to talk about and I want you to feel free to say whatever you need to," he kissed her forehead. "Danielle, I hope we see you again before we leave."

Danielle was stunned, had been stunned since she laid eyes on Annie in the restaurant earlier, but before she knew it she was alone in the hotel room with just her sister.

"What happened to him? He has bruises," Danielle asked concerned after Auggie was gone.

"I can't tell you, but it was the worst few days of my life," Annie admitted and sat back down and picked at a piece of bread.

"Worse than a stapler accident?" Danielle hazarded.

"Way worse," Annie confirmed.

"What else do you have to tell me?" Danielle asked her interest piqued by Auggie's comment.

"I have a heart condition, probably caused by the scar tissue from the shooting I went through a couple years ago. It's called Myocarditis and I have had some episodes, shortness of breath and irregular heartbeat. I am currently not rated for field duty, but my boss has offered me a place on a task force and I am researching treatment options," Annie got it all out in one breath.

"Oh god," Danielle dropped her head into her hands. "I just got you back."

"And you have me back, I'm not going anywhere, most of the time I am completely fine and if I do have an attack I have medicine that controls it," Annie assured her sister.

"How long have you and Auggie been together?" Danielle asked next and Annie looked up surprised.

"If I didn't notice the affection between you I would have noticed the man's razor in the bathroom and it smells like pine in there, not your scent at all."

"I'm the spy, remember that," Annie pointed her dessert fork menacingly.

"I have to get my information from somewhere and it sure hasn't been you lately."

"Touché. We were together for a few months last year and then we were apart, actually apart for almost a year, and then we were a mess of my making for the past few months. We just decided to give this whole thing another chance between us, a real chance, we had no time before with Henry," Annie toyed with the chocolate sauce under her dessert.

"He's really cute," Danielle added taking a bite off Annie's plate and pushing her own dessert towards Annie to share.

"Yeah, that was never really the problem," Annie laughed.

"What's next? Are you going to stay in DC? Take this task force job?"

"Next is a vacation in Hawaii and then yes back to DC."

"Annie, you have to know that I am overjoyed that you are alive. No matter how angry I may be about what happened there is nothing you could ever do that would make me wish you were not on the planet with me, but I need time to think about what happens next. I need to think about the girls, they are growing up, they aren't babies that we can gloss over the situation and they won't ask hard questions and they mourned your death something awful. I don't want to pile on to your angst, but they were crushed when I told them you were dead," Danielle drew a deep breath and took a sip of water as Annie fought tears.

"I understand if you can't welcome me back into your family Danielle, I do, but I need to know that my sister is out there. I need to feel connected to you again, even if we never have what we had before," Annie choked on a sob.

TBC…


	5. Can't Stand Losing You Act 5

NOTES: Thanks so much for the kind reviews and welcome back after a bit of a break between stories. This is the end of "episode" 1, but fear not I will be back Monday with Act 1 of Episode 2. Have a great weekend!

****555****

"Can I get you anything else, Sir?" the waitress asked Auggie from his spot in the hotel lobby bar.

He had found a quiet corner and was surfing some news and sports sites, reading a bit about Hawaii and biding his time waiting to hear from Annie.

"No, thank you," he smiled slipping his key card out of his shirt pocket.

Auggie got the text around midnight that Danielle had left. He settled up his bill and packed his laptop away and began the journey back through the lobby to the elevators. He had no idea what he was walking in to, but the room was quiet and cool when he entered it.

"Annie?"

"Here," she called from what sounded like the bedroom.

He made his way across the living room to the doorway of the bedroom.

"Here?" he asked.

"Here," she repeated more muffled than the first time.

He found the bed and soon the lump of her body beneath the blankets.

"You OK?"

"I'm cold," she replied.

"That wasn't what I meant, but OK," he smiled and toed his shoes off and pushed them under the bed before climbing onto it and wrapping himself around her and the blankets.

"I guess it could have been a lot worse," Annie finally offered.

"She stayed for 5 hours, she must have wanted to hear what you had to say," Auggie reasoned.

"She did. It wasn't terrible, I'm just beginning to realize the consequences of my actions. What I lost, what I still might lose," she tugged his hands, pulling him closer still and rolling over to face him nose to nose in this huge bed they were using a very small piece of.

"It won't be easy to go through the process Annie, but I think you should. We can very easily lose perspective on the real world in our jobs. Danielle was always a grounding force for you when she lived in DC, she is important, you need to show her how much you need her and value her."

"Do I need to show you that too?"

"I can understand your actions easier than she can."

"But you still deserve to know how much I need you. How much I value you. How much I love you. And want you," she punctuated each item with a kiss.

"We'll work on it, together," Auggie promised as he maneuvered his body under the blankets with her.

"What if we fail?"

"We won't."

"We did before."

"Mmmm," he agreed nodding so his nose brushed against her hair.

"What's different now?"

"We know what we're missing. We looked at life without each other, we made a choice. To try again."

"You are always my first choice, you know that right? It may seem like you end being the last choice, but you are always first, I just hardly ever let myself have my first choice," Annie admitted.

"I understand Annie, some of it, not all of it, but I am willing to listen and to accept the decisions we both made for the good and the bad the past couple of years."

It was Annie's turn to nod and although that was often not the best way to communicate with Auggie, he could feel her forehead knock gently against his.

"You still cold?" he asked as he rubbed a hand along her back.

"No," she yawned.

"Sleep," he stroked her hair gently.

"We're still dressed," she smiled.

"I don't really feel like moving. We'll send our clothes out to be dry cleaned tomorrow."

"I like the way you think."

"I like having you in my arms again."

The END of Ep 1


	6. Spirits in the Material World Act 1

Notes: Thanks so much for the kind words about "Ep 1". We are picking up just mere hours after the end of that Ep here, but don't worry you get Hawaii in this Ep this week too, which is great since we are gearing up for a blizzard here. Speaking of that, you will have a new Act each day unless my power goes…. I hope you like it.

***555***

Spirits in the Material World Act 1

Annie woke, twisted in her clothes and sweaty from the blankets and the fact that they went to bed overdressed. She forgot how warm Auggie was, he radiated heat, she hadn't been this close to him for this long in well over a year.

She slipped out of the bed and heard Auggie murmur something and roll over in search of the cool sheets. She stripped her clothes off as she moved towards the bathroom where she freshened up and washed the previous day's make-up off her face.

She slipped back in to the bed in nothing but her panties and migrated to Auggie's new spot. His arms came around her easily as his head found the crook of her neck. She tried to drift back to sleep, but the jet lag or the cacophony in her head kept her awake. She didn't mind the insomnia really, she had Auggie in her arms, a beginning with Danielle and a possible fresh start with the CIA. All in all it sure beat the other sleepless nights she'd experienced over the past 5 years.

Danielle left the night before and agreed to meet Annie for lunch today at a café downtown. Annie and Auggie had a couple days before their scheduled flight to Hawaii and Annie was grateful that Danielle was willing to spend more time with her. As she ruminated on Danielle she felt Auggie's breath hitch and change.

"Hey," she whispered.

"Mmmm," he murmured still half asleep.

"I can't sleep," she mentioned.

"I can," he replied and nuzzled closer to her, his hands stroking her back.

Auggie was a complex man for certain, his intellect unmatched, but in some ways he was just a man. Annie could actually catalog his responses as he began to realize she had taken off most of her clothes. His hands stilled against her body, he opened his eyes and licked his lips and before she could react he rolled onto his back bringing her flush on top of him.

"You weren't wearing this when we went to sleep," he smirked as he trailed a finger along her bare shoulder.

"You are absurdly observant," she smirked back.

"I feel over-dressed."

"We should remedy that," Annie sat up and went to work on the buttons on Auggie's deliciously rumpled dress shirt.

He had removed his belt before climbing into bed the night before so Annie was able to make short work of his pants as well and soon they were tangled sleep-warm skin to sleep-warm skin.

"Is this real?" Auggie asked after a couple of minutes exploring her soft skin.

"What?"

"This moment, are we really here together? Or am I going to come to in a basement in Grozny and realize I'm dreaming?" he frowned.

"You are here, with me, we are together and we are staying together Auggie. No more secrets, no more sacrifices, no more apart," she assured him.

"What time is it?" Auggie asked as he kissed along Annie's jawline.

"4:00 am," she said cautiously.

"4:00? Well, that's 7:00 to us, a perfectly respectable hour to be awake and alert and this turned on," Auggie rationalized.

"I've missed you," Annie admitted.

"What is on the agenda for today?" Auggie asked.

"I am meeting Danielle at 1:00 for lunch, that's it," Annie replied as she arched against the hand Auggie had placed on her lower back.

"Want to go watch the sunrise?" Auggie asked with a straight face.

"No," she shook her head for emphasis.

"Hungry?"

"Not really," she ran her fingertips over his bicep and watched the muscle jump.

"Early morning yoga?" now he was visibly grinning.

"I don't want to do any of those things," she clarified.

"Whatever will we do with these early morning jet lag hours?" he pondered.

Before he could suggest bird watching or tai chi she kissed him, her whole body flush against his, her hands on either side of his face holding him there, keeping him still, focusing him on the only thing she wanted at that very moment. When she finally had to abandon the kiss to breathe he laughed, it was the most beautiful sound.

"Oh, this? This is what you want to do?" he laughed again his hand moving over her body to strip the last scrap of fabric from her skin.

"Yes," she purred.

"Now?" he teased.

"Now," she moved against him in a way that left little room for doubt.

The resulting groan from Auggie was a switch flipped to end the playful banter and begin the soulful exploration of each other's bodies. Nothing more was said for a long time as skin was tasted, limbs entwined, rhythms established, lips crushingly fused. As it was on their very first night together, each vied for position and then happily retreated to allow the other some dominance. They held tight to each other and their bodies shook with barely restrained release.

"Annie," he ground out.

"Yeah," she nodded in understanding and agreement, his name next on her lips over and over.

***555***

"We're really good at that," Annie observed as she caught her breath flat on her back.

"Uh huh," Auggie agreed eloquently.

"Seriously, really good," Annie reiterated as she crawled back into his arms.

"Think you can sleep for a little while now?" he grinned and yawned.

"If you promise to take me out for a giant breakfast when we get up."

"That might be the easiest promise ever, giant breakfast coming up in a couple hours," Auggie smiled and curled his body around her.

TBC…


	7. Spirits in the Material World Act 2

Notes: Well, I think a couple of you are still reading...

Spirits in the Material World Act 2

"I want pancakes," Annie announced as she looked at the menu.

"You can have pancakes," Auggie shrugged.

"And potatoes, I want pancakes and hash browns," she sighed.

"I am sure they have both those things," Auggie smiled.

"I had dessert last night, it's like I am carb loading for a marathon," she groaned this time.

"You are going through a lot Annie, carbs are comfort, have them," he patted her hand as the waitress approached.

Annie ordered blueberry pancakes and hash browns as Auggie ordered an egg white omelet with tomatoes and kale.

"Now I really feel bad!"

"I'll trade you a bite of mine for a bite of yours," he offered.

"What are you going to do when I meet Danielle later?"

"I'll figure something out," he said vaguely.

"Have you been to San Francisco before?"

"A few times actually. If you can't find me later I probably rolled down a hill, start looking at the bottom of all the hills."

***555***

"You look beautiful," Danielle said as Annie looked down at her jeans and simple purple sweater.

"Thanks, I am full of pancakes," Annie held her stomach.

"I thought we were having lunch?"

"We are, I'll have some kale juice or something," Annie smirked.

"Well, it is California," Danielle agreed and turned to the hostess to be seated.

"Thanks for agreeing to see me again, I am sure you are incredibly busy with Christmas next week."

"The holidays are always a blur, it is almost better to have a distraction. Not that you are a distraction, but this whole reunion has really put things in perspective, you know?" Danielle babbled.

Annie smiled and nodded and sipped her water at the same time.

"What are you doing for Christmas?" Danielle asked suddenly.

"Hawaii, remember?"

"Right, that doesn't seem very traditional," Danielle frowned.

"Christmas hasn't really been the same since you left DC. I'll lounge on the beach, eat good food and unwrap Auggie, it will be great."

"That's why you look so pretty today, you had sex," Danielle whispered.

"I did," Annie confirmed.

"So you guys are good?" Danielle reached for a lemon for her water.

"In bed we are, we still have a lot of work to do out of bed. Is this really what we should be talking about?" Annie arched an eyebrow.

"It seems as good a topic as anything. You can't tell me any more about work and we kind of exhausted the past year last night. I need to get to know you again Annie. You and Auggie aren't the only ones starting over," Danielle lowered her voice as the waitress came to tell them the specials.

***555***

Annie had called Auggie when she left Danielle with a hug and a promise to have one more meal before the couple took off for Hawaii on Monday. He said he was having drinks with a couple friends, Annie should have known he had friends in San Francisco – he had friends everywhere. He gave her the name and address of the bar and Annie was on her way when Joan called.

"Hey Joan," Annie answered.

"I know you are on vacation, but I was wondering if you have ever heard of Ksenia Korlova?"

"Not off the top of my head," Annie thought back over all the Russians she knew.

"If it rings a bell let me know. It is possible Simon Fischer knew her," Joan approached the Simon topic cautiously.

"OK, I will think about it. Is it urgent?"

"Not yet, just pulling together some threads. How are things in California? How's Danielle?" Joan asked kindly.

"Better than I expected," Annie answered.

"Sisters forgive a lot," Joan said with what sounded like firsthand experience.

***555***

Annie finished the call with Joan and entered the bar Auggie had sent her to and was shocked to see Auggie with 2 guys, one of whom looked an awful lot like him.

"Hi," Annie smiled as she approached.

"You made it," Auggie smiled.

"I did," she kissed him softly and slipped onto the empty stool next to him and across from the other 2 men.

"Annie this is my brother Brady and Brady's boyfriend Vince. Guys, this is Annie Walker," he introduced them.

"I had no idea I would be meeting one of the illustrious Anderson brothers, wow, it is nice to meet you guys," Annie tried to school her shock.

"I am full of surprises," Auggie said with a smirk as he sipped his beer.

"Can I get you a drink?" a very cute waiter asked.

"I'll have what he's having," Annie hooked a thumb towards Auggie and noticed the slight look of disappointment on the waiters face as he noticed Auggie's hand on her thigh, sometimes being a spy was a useful social skill.

"Sure thing, darling," the waiter still wanted a good tip, even if he wasn't going home with Auggie later.

"Why didn't you tell me your brother lived here?" Annie asked as she leaned into Auggie's side.

"I'm not here very much, I travel a lot for work," Brady admitted.

"I emailed him last night when I was waiting for you to finish up with Danielle and hoped he would be in town and here he is."

"What do you do?" Annie asked.

"I work for Amnesty International, we both do," Brady indicated Vince.

"Amazing, that must be difficult and rewarding at the same time," Annie was intrigued.

"You forgot dangerous," Auggie added ironically.

Annie pinched his thigh for his hypocrisy.

"We enjoy the work," Vince added with a grin.

"Are we free for dinner?" Auggie asked as Annie received her beer.

"Yes, Dani is swamped with work for the holidays."

"But everything is good?"

"Pretty good," Annie smiled.

"So you guys can join us for dinner?" Brady clarified.

"Absolutely, I am not passing up a chance to grill one of Auggie's brothers," Annie grinned.

"You may want to rethink the invitation," Auggie grimaced.

"Not a chance baby brother, which story should I start with…" Brady trailed off in thought.

"This could be fun," Vince agreed.

***555***

"So our dad comes home and Auggie is on the roof and the dog is locked in the bathroom covered in toothpaste. Needless to say our oldest brother never babysat again," Brady wiped at a tear that escaped from all the laughing.

"That dog never liked me," Auggie frowned.

"I can't imagine why," Annie tried to catch her breath from laughing.

"We tormented you, you tormented him, it was just common sense," Brady rationalized.

"I never would have survived the Army if it wasn't for the 4 of you," Auggie admitted.

"Toughened you up kid, you would have been a nerd without us," Brady punched him in the shoulder jokingly.

"He's still a nerd, just a really really strong one," Annie confirmed.

Thanks to the lack of warning on this meeting Annie had no way of knowing if this was the brother that knew about Auggie's real job. Regardless Auggie was still part nerd no matter which way you looked at him.

"Don't forget sexy," Auggie added.

"I can honestly say that I have met my share of nerds," Vince began, "and you are the sexiest."

Brady glared at his boyfriend.

"You are so not a nerd, babe," Vince defended.

"Boys," Annie warned before this got out of hand.

"I'm not sure if I am more concerned that my brother's boyfriend thinks I'm hot or you think I'm a nerd?" Auggie puzzled.

"You work on that, I'll be right back," Annie kissed his cheek and excused herself to the ladies room.

"Do you have any idea how beautiful she is?" Brady asked when he was certain Annie was out of ear shot.

"I have a pretty good idea, yes," Auggie smiled.

"She could be a model," Vince agreed.

"I knew she was pretty the day I met her," Auggie mentioned.

"She looks at you like you are the most important person in the room," Brady added.

"I'm pretty sure I am," Auggie joked pretending to look around.

"I'm serious," Brady patted his brother's arm to get his full attention, "she is in love with you."

"And tell me again how you know the signs of a woman in love?" Auggie arched an eyebrow.

"Love is love, little brother," Brady shrugged.

TBC…


	8. Spirits in the Material World Act 3

Spirits in the Material World Act 3

Annie navigated them through the rush of holiday travelers at SFO, keeping Auggie close for multiple reasons. Their time in San Francisco had passed quickly, but sharing their families with each other had been a good thing. Speaking of family, Annie caught sight of her sister approaching with a hurried gate.

"Danielle's here," she said to Auggie who stopped walking.

"Oh good, I caught you," Danielle caught her breath.

"Is everything OK?" Annie reached out for her sister's arm.

"Yes, yes, it's fine, I just wanted to say good-bye. Again. To see you one more time," Danielle bit her bottom lip.

"Oh Dani," Annie stepped away from Auggie and wrapped her arms around Danielle.

"I'm glad you came," Danielle admitted as she hugged Annie tighter.

"Me too," Annie agreed having wished she had done it sooner.

"You too," Danielle spoke to Auggie and reached out to take his arm, "I am glad to see you too, with her, together."

"I am incredibly happy to be with her, together," Auggie admitted as Danielle hugged him too.

"OK, have a great trip and a Merry Christmas. I made you guys some homemade granola for the flight, it is much healthier than anything you could buy in there," she indicated the world beyond the security check point at SFO.

"Dani, thank you," Annie laughed. "I have missed your culinary skills."

"It's a longer flight than people think, you'll want this later," Danielle produced a clear cellophane bag of granola tied with a perfect red ribbon.

"It looks amazing. If you are good, I might share it with you," Annie teased her man.

"Oh, I made one for Auggie too," she produced a second bag, tied with a green bow.

Auggie just smiled as Danielle placed the bag in his hands, it was a huge amount of granola.

"Thank you," he nodded and found room in his messenger bag for the treat.

"You're welcome, go now, before I cry," Danielle shooed them off.

***555***

"You're sister is amazing," Auggie mentioned as they settled in the airport bar near their gate.

"She really is. She is also incredibly smothering, but mostly in a good way," Annie agreed.

"So we weathered family time. How will we fare with alone time?" Auggie asked quietly.

"We are doing very well with naked and alone time," Annie mentioned as she kissed him softly.

"We never had any problem with that," Auggie grinned.

"Right, so I was thinking we should do a couple of activities in Hawaii, go parasailing or rock climbing or something, rebuild our team work skills," she mentioned off-handedly.

"Admit it, this trip is an elaborate ruse to push me in a volcano."

"You figured me out."

"I am all in for any sort of adventure sports you have up your sleeve, Walker, but at some point we need to start talking about us."

"I know," she squeezed his hand.

"It's going to be harder than Danielle, we have more shit between us and we aren't family, we don't have that default to fall back on."

"I'm willing to do the work," Annie assured.

"Me too," Auggie sighed remembering how hard it was for them to really talk the last time they were together, he hoped they really could do the work.

"I think it will be easier this time," Annie said as if reading his mind.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, we aren't in the middle of anything else right now. Our minds are clear, we are heading to paradise and we both have dealt with some mortality issues recently. This is it Auggie, our one life, we need to make the best of it."

"I do love you."

"I know and we have to figure out how to make sure that love is enough when we get back to DC."

The waitress brought their lunch and Annie abandoned the heavy conversation for potential excursions in Hawaii. They debated parasailing vs hang gliding over turkey sandwiches until their flight was called.

***555***

It might have been the 5 and a half hour flight in close quarters or the lush tropical air that greeted them upon arrival. It may have been the friendly hotel staff or the faint scent of frangipani that seemed to be everywhere. It is possible that any of these things might have contributed to Annie's barely concealed desire for her man as the bellman stowed their luggage for them.

He chatted on about the hotel amenities and the local attractions showing them the features of the lovely room and Annie kept trying to listen as Auggie continued to run his thumb along the bare skin at her elbow. The young hotel employee finally exhausted his information, graciously accepted the tip Annie had prepared for him and departed.

"I missed all that, where's the bed?" Auggie asked as he spun Annie around and kissed her hard.

"I didn't think he was going to stop talking," Annie laughed as she pulled at Auggie's clothes.

"Next time we are vacationing somewhere with less information, like Milwaukee or something," he said very seriously as Annie managed to get them closer to the bed.

Annie snorted out a laugh and turned them so Auggie's knees hit the bed and he pulled her down with him as he wrapped her fully in his arms.

"That was the longest flight of my life," she mentioned as she stripped off her clothes.

"You know how they tell you not to eliminate an entire food from your diet because you will just end up binging on it later?" Auggie said absently as he kissed along her newly revealed torso.

"Mmmm," she murmured.

"I feel like I deprived myself of wanting you, for my own sanity, for so long and now I can't get enough of you. I want you so much, Annie," he returned to her mouth and prevented her from answering.

***555***

"Do you want to go out for dinner, I hear there are like 72 different eating establishments within walking distance?" Auggie asked as he trailed his fingers through her damp hair.

"Yes, it sounds like there is lots to see and do outside of this room, but I have to admit I am enjoying the view right here," Annie smiled as she took in all of naked Auggie.

"See, if we had gone to Milwaukee it would be way too cold to go outside, but here…. I wouldn't mind sticking my toes in the ocean," Auggie wiggled his toes for good measure.

"That settles it, next Christmas we go to Wisconsin," Annie leaned up to kiss him and was rewarded with a big smile for the kiss or the idea that they would be together next Christmas.

"Danielle's granola was delicious, but I could use a meal too. Let's go down to the beachfront place, we can eat and stick our toes in the water," Auggie suggested and rolled towards the edge of the bed.

"I did pack an awful lot of clothes, I suppose I should actually wear some of them," Annie agreed and slipped from the bed.

She handed Auggie his cane so he could explore as she did the same, taking a look at the lovely bathroom they had at their disposal.

It was relatively early when they got down to the beachfront hotel restaurant so they got a wonderful table and had the place practically to themselves. Annie explained the menu and her own indecision about which of the many local delicacies she wanted. They finally decided on a variety of appetizers to share.

"It's really beautiful," Annie mentioned as she looked out over the blue green water.

"Good," Auggie said his face turned to the both the sun and the breeze off the ocean.

"I feel lighter," Annie said suddenly and he turned towards her voice with a question on his face.

"Talking to Danielle. I don't think I realized how much of my heart was closed off because of that," she admitted as their drinks arrived.

Auggie took a contemplative sip before he spoke.

"You went through a lot with Simon and the accident," he spoke cautiously of the shooting unsure of who might be listening, "and in the middle of it Danielle moved and I was completely distracted with my own drama. That changed you, it would change anyone. You won't ever be the old Annie Walker again, this life makes us different, but not all the changes have to be bad."

"I'm starting to understand that," she nodded and turned back to the ocean.

"I don't think we need to rehash every single thing from the past 5 years, but we have to acknowledge the reasons we did some of the things we did."

Auggie heard her slide her chair back and for a second he thought he had offended her with his honesty, but soon he felt her approach, the chair scraping along the patio.

"I'm going to sit next to you," she explained as she rearranged the table a little.

"OK," he smiled.

"I just want to be closer to you," she said shyly.

TBC…


	9. Spirits in the Material World Act 4

Spirits in the Material World Act 4

"Dinner was good," Annie mentioned as they strolled down to the waterline.

"It was," Auggie agreed quietly.

"You OK?" she placed a hand on his chest to stop him.

"I am, just relaxed," he smiled.

"OK," she left her hand there a beat longer then returned to walking.

"We're close," he meant to the water, but she smiled as if he meant them personally.

"We are, might want to abandon our shoes soon," Annie said as they hit the hard packed sand closer to the tide.

Shoes were toed off, Auggie deposited his cane inside his shoe and Annie looped her small purse across her body. Auggie was wearing shorts and Annie's sundress was short enough to pose no risk of getting wet. She brushed his hand to offer him her elbow again and instead he laced their fingers together.

"How crowded is it?" he asked before taking a step.

"Not very, we have a good open stretch," she assured him and he just nodded.

They walked hand in hand and Auggie felt the sand cool as they approached the surf. Annie noticed his toes curl in anticipation and a slightly pensive look on his face.

"Ready?" she asked as the froth of a fresh wave approached.

"For anything," he smiled.

***555****

"Mele Kalikimaka," Annie said as Auggie opened his eyes Christmas morning.

"Merry Christmas," he smiled as he rolled towards her warm soft body.

"Can I interest you in breakfast?" she giggled as he nibbled at her hip.

"In a few minutes," he murmured as he used his nose to push her pajama top out of his way.

"Why are you wearing clothes?" he asked with fake annoyance.

"I didn't think greeting the room service guy naked was a good idea," she shrugged.

"Yeah," Auggie agreed and returned to burrowing under said clothes.

"So I had an idea," Annie began.

"I will promise you it is not as good as my idea," his hand found the waistband of her pajama bottoms.

"It is diffffffffferent than your idea," she stuttered as his teeth found a particularly delectable spot.

"I'm all ears," he said although his attention was elsewhere.

"Your ears are quite prominent," she laughed as she used said ears to direct his attention to her face.

"Hey," he feigned offense at the ear dig.

"They work on you," she promised.

"What's this idea before you begin chronicling all of my lesser attributes," he frowned.

"I didn't get you anything for Christmas."

"You helped get me out of a torture chamber," he shrugged.

"You managed that just fine on your own, but I am serious, I haven't snuck off to buy you the perfect gift."

"Neither of us has snuck off anywhere, so I too have nothing for you except my body which I am willing and able to give you right now," he started back to where he had left off.

"And while that is an extraordinary gift that I will cherish over and over today and every day, I have, as I started to say, an idea."

"OK, I'm officially intrigued."

"Let's give each other the truth for Christmas. We can start small, little things like stocking gifts that we have omitted and move up into the bigger presents as the day goes on. We've talked a lot these past few days and it is getting easier, you know," she raked her fingers through his hair.

"Like, I was going to ask you out and then Danielle told me about Dr. Scott and I didn't because I thought you deserved to be with a normal guy with all his senses and a decent job? That kind of truth?" he said as he shimmied up and kissed her softly.

"Mmmm, like that. I was going to ask you out after you told me about your unit, but I didn't because I was afraid you would think it was pity even though it totally wasn't," Annie moved her legs to cradle him there, his head on her chest.

"The night you came to my apartment, after you worked with Helen, and we broke up. I was panicked that I couldn't see your face, really unsure if the words you were saying matched what you really felt. I had never felt so blind," Annie took a deep breath under his cheek.

"You've missed the mark a few times, but I let it happen. I take advantage of the fact that you can't see my face and it makes me sick sometimes that I let you walk away misinformed. I did it when you gave me the car."

"Huh?"

"The day you gave me the Corvette and said you could practically hear me smiling? I was on the verge of tears that you were going after Parker and leaving me with a car. A great car, but a car," Annie admitted.

"I'm so glad you said something this time Annie. I'm so glad you fought for us and didn't let me walk away again. I really thought I had lost you forever, to McQuaid or to your belief that we couldn't work together and have love. Everything I was getting from you was final, I am glad you spoke up," Auggie looked up his eyes bright with tears.

"I will tell you how I feel every day, for the rest of our lives Auggie," Annie promised as she kissed him, wrapping her legs around him declaring the conversation on pause for a bit.

***555***

"What was your favorite Christmas gift when you were a kid?" Auggie asked later over a late breakfast.

"When I was 9 I got a pink bicycle with tassels on the handlebars and a basket with a big plastic daisy on the front. It was a big deal because I never had a bike, we lived pretty light so we could pick up and move, but my dad had a good post and I knew the bike meant we would be sticking around for a while. I loved that bike," Annie said wistfully as she speared another piece of fruit.

"Wow that is so much more profound than mine," Auggie chuckled.

"What's yours?"

"My aunt gave me a fireman's helmet when I was about 6, it had a siren built into it and it was loud."

"Did your mother ever speak to this aunt again?" Annie asked genuinely curious.

"It was definitely a topic of discussion, to this day actually. Which I guess is part of why it is so memorable, when you're the youngest of 5 very few of the stories are just about you."

"Is that why you followed the path you did? To set yourself apart?" Annie asked with a hand over his hand on the table.

"Probably, to some extent. I was recruited so it wasn't all my big rebellion, but yeah, I wanted something that was just mine," Auggie shrugged.

"You got that to the extreme."

"I sure did," Auggie smiled sadly, "Seeing Brady reminded me how isolated I am really."

"We can change that. I'm not saying read in everybody, but we can present a more public persona."

"Are you saying you want to meet the rest of my family?"

"Eventually, yes. I want to meet everyone you care about," she kissed his cheek.

"Oh good, then we can skip my brother Joe," Auggie joked.

***555***

"We go home tomorrow," Annie mentioned a couple of days later as the pair lounged in their very large hotel bathtub.

"Yep," Auggie agreed and wrung cool water out of a wash cloth over her slightly sunburned shoulders sending delightful shivers down her spine.

"I think Joan already has a case for us."

"Oh?"

"She called me in San Francisco and asked me about Ksenia Korlova, if I knew her."

"Do you?" Auggie asked curiously.

"No. She said she may have known Simon, so I assume she is FSB or former. Joan didn't say any more, but I don't think we'll spend our first day back filling out tax forms and getting a sexual harassment seminar," Annie snorted.

"I might need that," Auggie teased his fingers over her body.

"I'm serious Auggie, we are going to be thrown right back in. Are we ready for that?"

"We won't know until we know. I'd love to stay here forever and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist, but we can't. I do know that I feel closer to you than I ever have before, that these past days have shown me why it is that I love you so much, added depth to what I always felt was incredibly strong attraction," Auggie had his chin on her shoulder, was speaking right into her ear.

"I feel the same way. I feel like we were instantly connected all those years ago and took it for granted, assumed the attraction was enough, assumed the trust was solid and would carry us through anything. We lost sight of that. No offense," she giggled at her own blind joke to break the tension.

"I had never been with you and Danielle together. I used to listen to your side and a couple times I listened to her side, but I never saw you interact," he pointed out.

"I thought your brothers were fictional," Annie snorted.

"I know we aren't normal people, but that doesn't mean we have to abandon all normal social constructs. Home. Family. We need these things. Even Joan has that now with Mackenzie and Arthur, we can have that Annie."

"I hope so."

"You have to believe it Annie, you have to believe in us," Auggie continued to speak right into her ear.

Annie turned then, in the tub and in his arms to look him in the eye, to brush the wet bangs from his forehead. She kissed his temple, the middle of his brow his nose working her way down to his lips.

"I believe in us," she promised before capturing those lips.

TBC…


	10. Spirits in the Material World Act 5

Spirits in the Material World Act 5

After a full day of travel and what seemed an eternity for the checked baggage, Annie and Auggie pulled up to Auggie's building around dinner time on New Year's Eve.

"You're going to stay, right?" Auggie asked suddenly shy.

"Yeah, of course, I want to wake up in your arms for the first day of 2015," she assured him as she turned off the car.

They dragged the bags upstairs and Annie took out the most vital of items leaving everything else packed up in a corner.

"I'm going to take a shower," she said over her shoulder.

"Was that an announcement or an invitation?" Auggie looked up from the credenza.

"You are welcome to join me, but I am way too tired to make it worth your while."

"You go ahead, I have to make a call," he pulled out his phone.

"Oh?" she said curious.

"I know you talked to Joan, but I really should as well," he shrugged.

"I'm sure she will be happy to hear from you," Annie smiled and moved up to the bathroom.

Annie always appreciated the relationship Joan and Auggie had, even if she sometimes felt Auggie took Joan's side over hers. In the beginning it was the way Joan treated Auggie that made Annie truly believe the woman had a heart, she was so hard on Annie herself.

Auggie dialed the familiar number, hoping the parents of a one year old were home on New Year's Eve.

"Auggie?" Joan answered after a ring or two.

"Hi Joan, sorry to call on a holiday, but we just got home. I wanted to check in," Auggie felt silly, unsure of how to say he was wrong to walk away.

"Did you have a good trip?" Joan eased in.

"We did, it was really very special," he smiled and Joan could hear it.

"Good. Should I expect you both in the office on Monday?"

"Yes, if you want us both."

"More than anything," she said honestly.

"Great."

"I don't think I have Annie's vehicle details, email me those and I will get her cleared through the gate and meet you both at the entrance at 8:30 Monday," Joan instructed.

"See you then," Auggie promised.

"Auggie, I understood why you wanted to walk away and I understand why you are coming back. We're good," Joan assured him.

"Thank you Joan, for everything," he hung up before he betrayed his cool exterior.

He stowed his messenger bag and headed up to the bedroom, he could hear the shower running and smell the coconut of Annie's shampoo. Was this all really happening? Was Annie in his shower on New Year's Eve?

"Pizza? Chinese?" he asked over the shower.

"Pizza sounds great, probably be awhile though with the holiday rush," Annie stuck her head out of the curtain.

"Yeah, I'll call it in now," he promised as she rinsed her hair and turned off the water.

***555***

The knock at the door woke them both from the nap they had not planned.

"I'll get it," Annie stood and wiped at the tangled half dried hair in her face.

"Thanks," Auggie sat up himself and got his bearings.

Annie slid the door open to find a young man with a pizza in hand.

"Hey," she smiled.

"Hey, that's $18.50," he informed.

Annie opened Auggie's wallet which she had swiped on the way by and gave the kid $40.

"Keep the change," she smiled.

"Thanks," he lit up.

"Happy New Year," she nodded.

"You too," he waved and retreated.

"Making friends?" Auggie asked as he appeared behind her and took the pizza from her.

"You just very generously tipped that poor kid who is working on New Year's Eve," she explained.

"I did?" he cocked his head.

"I took the money out of your wallet," she admitted, "I used the last of my cash for the coffee during our layover."

"Well that was nice of me," he kissed her cheek, "and my money is your money."

"How about your beer?" she asked as she perused their beverage options.

"My beer has always been your beer," Auggie laughed.

"True," she nodded as she pulled two bottles and the water pitcher from the fridge.

They ate the pizza hungrily, drank a beer a piece and Annie dug up some chocolate covered pretzels from her carry on for dessert.

"I hate to put a damper on New Year's Eve, but I can't keep my eyes open," she yawned as Auggie stowed the left over pizza.

"Come here," he asked as he turned from the fridge.

Annie moved across the small kitchen, in her bare feet she tucked under his chin so perfectly.

"I have a feeling 2015 is going to be an amazing year," he whispered against the crown of her head.

"Me too," she smiled as she squeezed him tight.

The End of Ep 2

NOTE: Thanks so much for the lovely feedback, also so happy to see some other stories continuing and starting for this show that I love so much, so thanks to everyone else that is writing! Ep 3 is all written and will premiere on Monday, have a great weekend! Go Patriots!


	11. Rehumanize Yourself Act 1

Notes: Thank you so much for the lovely and considerate reviews. Here is the beginning of Episode 3!

Rehumanize Yourself Act 1

Auggie was finishing the knot on his tie when he heard the simultaneous knock and the lock turning that signaled Annie's arrival. She had finally gone home the day before to do weeks' worth of laundry and get ready to go back to work.

"Morning," she said as she wheeled a small suitcase behind her.

"Morning," Auggie grinned back, "you moving in?"

"I brought a few things. I thought we could celebrate our first day back with dinner tonight and then I know I am not going to want to say good-bye," she admitted.

"I like that plan so much," he said as she came up and kissed him hello.

"Good," she released a breath as they navigated the second phase of their relationship.

"You ready for today?" he asked as he poured her a cup of coffee.

"Yes," Annie mustered as much courage as she could.

"It's a new start Annie, outside the DPD, less oversight," he highlighted the biggest selling point for Annie.

"Still Joan though," Annie frowned.

"Maybe you and Joan should go to Hawaii for a few days, I think you two need to bond," he teased.

"Har har, let's get a move on I don't want to be late on our first day," she took a long swallow of coffee and abandoned the mug in the sink.

***555***

Auggie stood coolly, one knee bent, his hip cocked, his cane in front while Annie fidgeted with her skirt and paced. They had arrived 10 minutes earlier than Joan had asked and it had only been 3 minutes.

"Annie," Auggie said calmly.

"I know," she replied with a pout and stood still for 15 seconds before she began tapping her foot.

"Oh my God," a familiar voice broke through the anxiety.

"Hi Eric," Annie smiled.

"What are you two doing here?" he said with a grin.

"New assignment," Auggie said simply.

"They told us you resigned," Barber said as he clapped his friend on the back.

"It's been a bit of a whirlwind," Auggie waved a hand around in the universal symbol for 'it's too much to get in to now'.

"Whatever, just glad to have you back on campus."

"Sorry I haven't looped you in, we've been away and it was all very sudden," Auggie felt slightly guilty.

"Hey, no problem," Barber held up his hands, "I know the way things work around here, just glad to see you both here."

"Thanks, Eric," Annie smiled again.

"Good morning," Joan appeared suddenly and Annie saw Eric's spine straighten a little at her voice.

"Morning, Joan," Auggie smiled gently.

"Sorry to break up the reunion, but I need these two," Joan said kindly to Barber.

"Of course, all yours," he saluted and headed inside.

"What do people know?" Auggie asked.

"Not much," Joan smiled.

"So nothing has changed while I've been away?" Annie asked with a grin.

***555***

"This is our space," Joan led them off the elevator on the 6th floor.

It was a very different environment from the DPD, wood paneling and actual doors and walls, nothing like the open plan of idea sharing in the DPD.

"There are 6 of us now, you'll meet the other 3 before lunch. You guys are here," Joan approached a corner office suite. "I think you will be able to tell who's is who's. I'll be back in a bit, get settled in."

Annie led Auggie through the open door and gasped at what she saw. It was Auggie's office from downstairs just in a different lushly carpeted setting.

"What?" he asked at her sudden stop.

"I'll let you figure it out yourself," she said as she brought him to the desk chair, his desk chair and put his hands on it.

She left him there and moved into the next office in the suite, which was more generically set up, but clearly had the most state of the art features including a smart table and a whole wall of screens. Within seconds she heard the beeps and buzzes of Auggie's computer firing up.

"Like you never left?" she grinned.

"She even brought my stress ball," Auggie tossed the rubber ball and caught it easily.

"It's nice," she said of the offices.

"It's quiet," Auggie noted.

"That can be good and bad for me, I did always like the rush of the DPD," Annie admitted.

Annie's nostalgia was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Calder," she nodded.

"I just wanted to say hello and let you know we are all glad you are both back in the building."

"Thanks," Auggie said with a nod and Annie smiled.

"It has been quite an eye opening experience working with the two of you. It has certainly never been boring, I expect great things here," he knocked on the door jamb and left.

"Good to know we make an impression," Auggie joked.

"We are nothing if not entertaining," Annie agreed and moved over to the window.

"Nice view," she commented.

"Let's see if I can keep this job with the nice view for more than a week," Auggie sighed.

***555***

Annie and Auggie settled in and played with their new office toys as they waited for Joan to return. She was down the hall assembling the other 3 members of their fledgling team, none of whom knew who else was joining them. Somewhere in her mind Joan feared Annie and Auggie wouldn't actually show up and she didn't want to get the team excited for nothing. Finally just before lunch Joan summoned them to a conference room at the other end of the hall.

Annie opened the conference room door, saw Joan at the far end of the table and one familiar face at the table.

"Hi Millie," Annie smiled.

"Annie? Auggie? I had no idea," she turned to Joan.

"Come on in you two," Joan instructed and Annie placed Auggie's hand on the back of a chair before taking the one next to him.

The pair sat and waited for introductions.

"Annie, Auggie you know Millie from the DPD, also with us is Calvin Jenkins from DST."

"Hi Auggie," Calvin greeted the man he knew and admired.

"Calvin, great to see you, so to speak," Auggie smirked.

"And finally we have Linda Cordeiro who just came back state side from Hungary Station. Calvin, you obviously know Auggie, but for you and Linda let me officially introduce Annie Walker and Auggie Anderson. This is the task force, this is the team I have handpicked and I have also handpicked our first assignment," Joan said with a glint in her eyes.

TBC…


	12. Rehumanize Yourself Act 2

Rehumanize Yourself Act 2

"This is Ksenia Korlova," Joan began as she brought up a picture on the screen behind her.

Annie saw a woman who appeared to be in her late 40s or 50s, glossy and well-dressed. She screamed new rich.

"Korlova is Russian born, Murmansk, but currently she resides in Miami. It is a well-known fact that Korlova is one of the most successful drug traffickers in all of Miami," Joan continued.

"So isn't she the DEA's problem?" Linda asked.

"This isn't about drugs," Annie guessed.

"Exactly," Joan smiled.

"What are the drugs funding?" Auggie added.

"We do not know," Joan sighed.

***555***

"Annie can I see you?" Joan asked as the group broke for lunch.

"Sure," she nodded.

"I'll grab that salad you like," Auggie offered.

"Ooooh, I've missed that salad," she squeezed his arm as she followed Joan down to her new office.

"You like the new space?" Joan began casually.

"Very much, it is definitely the nicest office I've ever had," Annie smiled.

"I'm glad you're here and Auggie too, but we do need to talk about your heart."

"I know."

"Have you considered your options?"

"I have. Now that I am no longer trying to hide my condition I need to have a full work up here in the US. My diagnosing doctor was thorough, but everything was rushed and confidential. So I have set up an appointment for next week."

"How have you been?"

"Fine. I haven't had an episode since I was in Argentina."

"Good."

"Of course I haven't exactly been exerting myself," Annie grinned.

"You deserved a break, so did Auggie. You both look much better."

"Thanks."

"I imagine your treatment will depend on the full assessment of damage to the heart muscle?"

"Yes, it could be as simple as drug therapy or it could require surgery, from what I read."

"Well, I meant what I said, Annie, I want you to get well. We are just starting to dig in to Korlova. I brought Linda on as she is a fully certified field agent, but I truly don't think there is going to be much more than surveillance for a while. Get better, you will always be the one I want out there."

Annie just nodded around the sudden lump in her throat.

***555***

By the time she made it back to the office Auggie had returned from the cafeteria with their lunch.

"Green goddess salad, no peanuts," he presented as she moved into the room.

"Thanks," she took the plastic box and pulled up a chair.

"Everything good?" he asked casually as he arranged his own food.

"Yes," Annie said honestly, but didn't share anything further.

"So what's your first thought on Ksenia?"

"If they cast the housewives of Murmansk she would fit right in."

Auggie just cocked his head.

"She has a very glossy richness to her, lots of gold and big sunglasses and shiny hair. Murmansk is a port town, she didn't come out of Murmansk like that."

"She's married to an American," Auggie shared a bit of info Joan had not.

"Really?"

"Yep, some corporate big wig, owns part of the Florida Marlins," he shrugged.

"Hmmmm, wonder if he knows about his wife's side business?"

"No idea."

"I feel like we need to do some work on Murmansk, it is a shipping area, not Russia's biggest, but significant. If she is running drugs and or money she may have a team there."

"We have a few assets in Petrozavodsk," Auggie remembered.

"Yeah?"

"I called them when you and Danielle were in Stockholm a while back, I've kept in touch."

"Great."

"I'll reach out," he promised as there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Annie called after she swallowed her food.

"Sorry to interrupt, but Joan said 10 minutes," Millie mentioned and moved on.

"I miss Hawaii," Annie sighed and stabbed at the lettuce in her salad.

***555***

"OK, we will meet again Wednesday, until then you have your assignments. Auggie and Calvin if you uncover anything actionable bring it to me immediately. Thanks," Joan left the task force in the conference room.

Auggie and Calvin began listing the various records they could get with the Freedom of Information Act and what they might need DOJ help with while Annie was interested to pick Linda's brain.

"So, you've been in Eastern Europe for a while now?" Annie asked as she fixed a cup of coffee.

"Five years," Linda nodded.

"That's a long assignment."

"I did well there," Linda shrugged.

"Well, I've never been stationed there but I do have a pretty good network, Auggie too, we should cross check our assets," Annie suggested.

"I'm sure you have quite a network to pull off the things you have pulled off," Linda alluded to Annie's infamous wins.

"It's mostly Auggie," she shrugged.

"The two of them are rock stars," Millie added.

"Thanks, Millie," Annie sipped her coffee.

"We heard a lot about you a few years back," Linda said diplomatically referring to the mess with Simon and Lena.

"Don't believe everything you hear, especially at the CIA," Annie whispered and walked away.

***555***

"I don't think Linda likes me," Annie mentioned as she tossed Auggie's stress ball in the air.

"I'm sure that's not true."

"I seem to have a reputation around these parts."

"For sleeping with your handler?" he smirked.

"For getting big wins. I'm turning in to Lena," she realized.

"No you're not," Auggie shook his head, "Lena's big wins were for Lena's benefit, yours have hardly benefited you at all."

"Mmmm," she nodded.

"You do get big wins Annie because you put your whole self on the line over and over."

"I wish I could get a big win without quite that much risk," she admitted.

"Maybe that is what this task force is for, this idea of a combined effort might be really good for you. It'll be hard to work with a team again, to trust a team again, but you can still haul in the big win, you just might have to share the glory, but you also get to share the struggle."

"Some agents burn bright for a short time and that's it, do you really think I can transition?"

"I think there is no one I have ever worked with who is as good at what they do as you are Annie. I think you have elite language and interpersonal skills and incredible instincts. I think you lost your focus for a while, lost a sense of your priorities, but I hope we can bring that back around."

"You are still really good at inspirational speeches," Annie teased.

"Good, now get out of here, you are distracting me," he smiled back.

***555***

Down the hall from Annie and Auggie's office suite was a similar lay out for Linda, Millie and Calvin. Linda returned from Joan's office with a box of files and closed the door behind her.

"Did you guys know who the other team members were before today?" Linda asked pointedly.

"No," the other two looked up from their desks.

"I thought they were both on their way out," Linda shared the gossip she knew.

"Joan has been through a lot with both of them, I am sure she was able to keep them in the fold," Millie responded.

"I hope that was a good decision," Linda replied and moved towards her desk in the back.

Calvin and Millie exchanged a worried look.

TBC…


	13. Rehumanize Yourself Act 3

Rehumanize Yourself Act 3

Annie knocked on the door of her teammates down the hall later that afternoon.

"Hey Annie," Calvin smiled as he looked up.

"Hi Calvin, Auggie's ready for you and I figured I would get out of your hair."

"Thanks," the younger man grinned and grabbed a pile of files and some random circuitry.

"Boys and their toys," Millie laughed.

"Seriously, I think half that stuff does nothing they just like playing with it."

"I'm glad Auggie is all better, he looked pretty rough there," Millie mentioned.

"Yeah, I could have lived my whole life without ever seeing him like that."

Linda returned at that moment with coffee for her and Millie.

"Sorry, I would have brought more if I knew you were here," she smiled politely enough.

"No problem, I have had plenty of caffeine today. I was hoping to pick your brain about Murmansk for a bit, do you have time?"

"Sure."

***555***

"Wow, this looks just like your desk in the DPD," Calvin noted as he walked around Auggie's set up.

"I think that was the plan."

"Can I ask you a question?" Calvin sat.

"The headphones are for getting real time feedback…" Auggie smirked remembering another question from another time.

"Um…."

"Just kidding, go ahead, what's up?"

"I heard a rumor you quit."

"That's not a question."

Calvin rolled his eyes which was lost on Auggie.

"Is it true? And if so, what are you doing here?"

"Calvin, you will find that your day to day reality shifts a lot when you work in this building. I needed to realign that reality a little bit after my last mission and when everything fell into place, I wound up back here."

"That is super Zen," Calvin said in awe.

"I don't know about that, but it is true."

"OK, how about we hook up these relays?" Calvin changed the subject to the pile of circuitry he brought with him.

***555***

After a couple of hours of work Auggie's computer chimed a new message.

"Message from Annie Walker: Coffee?"

Auggie quickly replied: "Do you even have to ask?" and grinned as he hit enter.

"So, you and Annie?" Calvin began as he fiddled with some knobs on the control panel.

"You are just full of questions," Auggie grinned.

"Sorry, just trying to get a picture of this new playing field," Calvin shrugged.

"Not a bad idea. Annie and I are together."

"So I shouldn't hit on her?" Calvin teased.

"You can try…." Auggie tried not to look too smug.

"Honestly, with you off the market it will give the rest of us a chance around here."

"Well, if you ever need a wing man… don't ask Eric Barber, he is a terrible wing man," Auggie chuckled.

***555***

"Hey Eric," Annie knocked on the glass door of Auggie's old lair.

"Hey Annie, how's the first day back?" he twirled in his chair to face her.

"So far so good. I was wondering if you knew anything about Linda Cordeiro?"

"She was in Prague for a bit, then Helsinki Station before Hungary, but no nothing that raised a flag, why?"

"No reason, she's just the only one on the new team I don't know. I'm a little gun shy these days," she shrugged.

"I'll do a little digging, under the radar," Barber promised.

"Thanks, I am going to get coffee would you like one?"

"Love would be a better term, yes, I would love one."

"You got it," Annie smiled and headed out to the coffee cart.

***555***

"Coffee's here," Annie announced as she strolled in with 3 cups.

"Oh good, a woman," Calvin replied.

"Now I'm curious," Annie smiled as she handed a cup of coffee to Calvin and placed Auggie's at his 10 o'clock.

"How much do shoes cost?" Calvin asked as he opened the lid on the hot beverage.

Annie appeared flustered by the random question.

"High end shoes for women, how much do they generally cost?"

"Eight or nine hundred dollars for a designer pair from that season. I have a pair that was $1500, why?" she pulled up a chair.

"Told you," Auggie smiled.

"I thought for sure this woman was laundering money through a shoe store," Calvin sighed as he flipped through some credit card statements.

"You could have googled this," Annie grinned.

"It seemed wholly impossible to me that anyone would pay $800 for a pair of shoes."

"Give me those," Annie asked for the documents and Calvin handed them over.

"She charged my salary in one month, the lady has some cash," Annie's eyes bugged out at the bills.

"Question is whether or not the money is legit or is it being laundered? Her husband is a billionaire this could all be totally legit money and her drug money is going somewhere else entirely," Auggie pointed out.

"There is a lot to be done," Calvin agreed.

"Good thing I brought coffee. Give me the Amex statements," Annie offered to help and the three worked well into the evening.

***555***

"Anything?" Auggie asked with a sigh as he rubbed his eyes.

"Nothing suspicious, but I have worked up a pretty good profile and even tracked some habits that would help with surveillance. She gets her hair done every two weeks on Tuesdays, apparently that level of bleached requires a lot of upkeep," Annie snorted.

"Better than nothing," Calvin shrugged.

"What's better than nothing?" Joan popped in with her coat over her arm.

"Tracking Ksenia's spending habits, she is a creature of habit," Annie smiled.

"Good, we might be able to leverage that. Go home guys, it's late," Joan waved and moved on.

"I was kind of terrified of Joan when I found out about this assignment, but she doesn't seem that bad," Calvin mentioned as she organized the paper work.

"She can be tough, but she's fair," Annie offered.

"I feel like this was a good move for me," Calvin admitted.

"Stick with us kid, you'll go places," Auggie said in a bad impression of some old movie star.

***555***

Annie saw Millie and Linda get on the elevator as she returned from the ladies room, she waved good bye. Auggie was finished and gathering his stuff when she came back in.

"Where do you want to go for dinner?" he asked as she approached, he could feel the electrons as she got closer.

"Home," she touched his sleeve gently barely enough to register, but he sensed her so close to him.

"I thought you wanted to celebrate our first day?" he arched an eyebrow.

"I do. At home," her fingers registered a little more force this time on his bicep.

Auggie opened his mouth to answer and found it suddenly very dry, he swallowed and nodded and reached out to find her hip. She was even closer than he thought and he overestimated for her hip, hitting instead the perfect roundness of her ass. She whimpered as he tugged her closer.

"At home?" he whispered in her ear.

"Yesssss," she sighed as his hand stayed firmly on her bottom.

"There's no food at home," he maintained a calm low voice.

"I don't care," her own voice betraying every ounce of desire.

"Yeah?" he asked moving his lips from her ear to her mouth.

"Yeah," she agreed as she kissed him, long and deep.

His hands found her hair as hers ran the length of his torso, settling on his hips.

"I missed you last night," she admitted as their kisses slowed to soft gentle and toe curling.

"Yeah, we went from spending every single moment together to sleeping in separate beds," he agreed as he kissed her forehead gently.

The last gentle kiss was almost her undoing and Annie reached for his face and pulled him down again, her tongue demanding entrance to his mouth as his hand found its way under her suit jacket to cradle her breast. She leaned into his touch and teetered slightly in her heels.

"This office has regular walls, right?" he asked alluding to his old glass office.

"Mmmmhmm," she nodded not really understanding what or why he was asking.

"Is there a flat surface besides my desk?" he continued to tease her body.

Finally Annie realized what he was working towards and pulled herself back with a laugh.

"Home, we need to go home," she reiterated her initial point as she wiped lipstick from Auggie's face.

"Right. Sure you don't want dinner?" he grinned.

TBC…


	14. Rehumanize Yourself Act 4

Rehumanize Yourself Act 4

Annie woke on Tuesday with a smile already on her face and Auggie's lips nibbling along her bare shoulder.

"Hungry?" she giggled.

"We never ate anything last night, I am starving," he admitted as she rolled onto her back and welcomed his lips with her own.

"We could afford to skip a couple meals after vacation," Annie reasoned as she tugged him fully on top of her.

"Your body is perfect," he murmured against her collar bone.

"Yours is pretty top shelf as well," she shifted to get him exactly where she wanted him.

"This will wear off?" She asked, "This honeymoon phase?"

"God, I hope not," he growled as he moved purposefully against her body trying to get her to make that perfect noise in the back of her throat that he had never heard any other woman make.

"We have to get dressed," she mentioned without much conviction.

"I can go faster," he leered.

"I can keep up," she promised.

***555***

"I am seriously starving," Annie announced as she came down from the bedroom fully dressed with her hair still drying to curls at the ends.

"Banana?" Auggie offered the half eaten fruit to her and she bit off a piece.

"We have time to run into the deli down the block for bagels or something," she mentioned as she glanced at the clock on the coffee pot.

"We will need to get a workout in soon."

"You elevated my heartrate plenty this morning," she teased and froze when she saw the look on his face.

"Are you OK?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah," she said confused until she realized what he was asking, "Oh, Auggie, my heart is fine. I feel fine."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, I didn't have an attack. I haven't had one since Argentina."

"OK," he nodded trying not to be too smothering.

"Do you want to come with me next week, when I see the cardiologist?"

"If you think it would be appropriate," he chose his words carefully.

"Auggie, do you want to come?"

"Yes," he said honestly.

"Then you should come, it is a good idea to have someone else there to get all the details," she shrugged.

"OK," he smiled again.

"Now kiss me and buy me a bagel," she pulled him by the tie for the first.

"You are so demanding," he lamented and kissed her again.

***555***

"I know you guys have been drilling down on Korlova's credit card and phone records and we definitely want to keep doing that, but today I also have some files here, unsolved cases over the past 5 years that have some similarities but not enough for anyone to declare they were committed by the same group. I want to prove they were," Joan began at Wednesday's catch up meeting.

"Who investigated the cases?" Annie asked.

"Various departments and in some cases it was the NSA," Joan admitted.

"We'll never get the details we need," Auggie mentioned.

"We have it all, material evidence, surveillance, everything," Joan grinned triumphant.

"Really?" Annie's eyebrows shot up.

"Really. I will admit to being as surprised as you, everyone always talks about inter-agency cooperation, but it looks like we are actually getting it."

"Other agencies don't usually like to admit that they failed," Auggie smirked.

"No they don't, but there is enough concern at a very high level about this threat. We cannot even come close to linking Korlova or her money to these crimes, but even if we can solve one of them we will have done something good," Joan powered up the projector and began going through the cases.

As she finished presenting all the cases: suicide bombings, bioweapon facilities, EMP plans, breaches in nuclear facilities – the hair on the back of Annie's neck stood up. If these cases were linked they were looking at a much bigger operation than she had ever brought down.

"Game plan?" Joan asked the room.

Annie waited a beat, she already felt like a show off after her conversation with Linda yesterday, she was about to speak when Auggie did.

"We have 4 suicide bombings, I say we start there where there are already similarities in weaponry and MO, if we can prove they were done by the same outfit then we branch out to the other cases," he offered.

Annie had to keep from beaming at him, that was exactly her strategy as well.

"Anyone else?" Joan offered diplomacy.

"I think Auggie's right, we have some good physical evidence in these bombings, it may be a more direct route," Calvin agreed seeing it from the tech side.

"OK, I want an initial report by the end of the week," Joan nodded and left.

***555***

"You sure suicide bombings are what you want to dive right into?" Annie asked quietly as they moved back to their office.

"It makes the most sense," he frowned.

"I agree, it was my approach too, but just checking in. An in depth investigation in to the type of attack that you lived through might not be fun."

"Most of this isn't what one would call fun," Auggie chuckled.

"True."

"I appreciate the concern, but I'm good," he squeezed her shoulder.

"OK, there are a ton of boxes in our office. Hang tight," she left him in the door way and shoved the tower of boxes as far off to the side as she could.

"Guess this is where the party is," Millie smiled as she appeared behind Auggie.

"You guys might have more room but we have a refreshable braille keyboard," Auggie winked.

"I'll gather the troops," Millie offered.

***555***

"I need to stretch my legs, I'll do the coffee run" Auggie announced Friday afternoon.

They had been working long days since Joan gave them the unsolved cases and with mere hours before the end of week wrap up Auggie had another thing on his mind.

"You sure?" Annie looked over.

"Yeah, its rush hour down there though so I might be a while," he grinned and grabbed his cane.

"Thanks," everyone chorused as he made his way out to the elevator.

His first stop was not the coffee cart though.

"Anybody home?" he asked as he approached his old office.

"Hey Auggie," Hollman smiled and Barber followed up with a "Hey-o".

"Everything done?"

"Done and done," Barber smiled.

"Thanks, I owe you guys. I've actually lost track of how much I owe you, but this one is special."

"Are you going to tell us what it's all about?"

"Monday, I promise. Thanks again," Auggie waved and headed to the coffee cart with a smile.

***555***

"The first and most obvious similarity between the bombings was the explosive. This type of plastique is very common though so it is not enough to link the attacks," Annie began.

"We looked at trigger switches and in 2 of the cases we have enough left to make an educated guess that they are the same type of trigger, but not conclusive," Auggie said as Annie flipped through slides.

"The bombers were 50/50 male female from 4 different countries, they were all in their late 30's which is fairly unusual, but not again, enough for a link," Millie added.

"The targets are also not similar enough for us, a subway station in St. Petersburg, a bazaar in southern Turkey, a playground in Tokyo and a war memorial in Brussels," Linda explained.

"I assume you are going with the bad news first approach," Joan frowned.

"We do have one thing," Annie smiled.

"The vests themselves, they are all homemade and although we only have fragments of each one they are made from exactly the same material and with the exact same thread, we got dye matching within 1 one millionth of exact. Now if all the attacks had happened close to each other this might not be a big deal, bombers shop at similar supply houses, but for the exact same thread to show up in Belgium and Japan, I think it is solid," Auggie finished.

"The labs agree?" Joan asked.

"They do," Linda confirmed.

"OK, it's a start. Auggie, Calvin and Millie I want you to stay on the bombings. Annie and Linda start in on the 2 nuclear facility breaches next," Joan instructed.

"Ok," Annie nodded and smiled at Linda trying to defrost the cool reception the other woman presented.

"Meantime, have a good weekend," Joan dismissed them.

TBC…


	15. Rehumanize Yourself Act 5

Rehumanize Yourself Act 5

"Want to go to Allen's?" Auggie surprised himself with the suggestion.

"Sure," Annie said as she slowed them in the hallway and turned to see the sweet smile on his face.

"It's been a long time," he sighed.

"A lot of good memories there," Annie agreed.

"We can't forget those. I know we have tried to work through the bad ones, but the good ones count too," he leaned down to rest his forehead against hers.

"Let's go," she agreed.

For all the time that had passed, Allen's was exactly the same. In fact, Annie was fairly sure the same women were checking Auggie out all over again.

"Oh my god, guess who is here?" she stopped suddenly and Auggie bumped into her and then bumped into her again for fun.

"Who?" he leaned low to speak in her ear.

"Calvin and Reva," Annie whispered back.

"They worked together at DST Annie, not a huge shock," Auggie shrugged.

"He has his hand on her leg," Annie reported.

"Good for Calvin. I'd like to have my hand on your leg, shall we?"

"There's a table over here," she led them to the table and put his hand on a chair only to switch seats so she could watch the goings on at the other table.

"Nosey," he smirked.

"Comes with the territory," she countered as a waitress approached and Annie ordered them a pitcher.

***555***

"I need more than these pretzels for dinner," Annie sighed as she finished the last of her beer.

"I can call in our Thai order, we can grab it on the way home," Auggie offered.

"Mmmmm, noodles."

"I'll take that as a yes," Auggie chuckled and pulled up the phone number.

"He kissed her," Annie hissed and slapped at Auggie's hand while he talked to the person at the Thai restaurant.

He pulled his hand back and scowled at her.

"Sorry."

"Yes, we'll pick it up Lin, thanks," Auggie finished.

"They are totally going home together," Annie mentioned as she put her coat on.

"So are we, and I am much more interested in our evening than theirs," Auggie followed suit and put on his coat.

"Let's go handsome, I want some noodles," she gave Auggie her arm but kept looking back over her shoulder at Calvin and Reva who seemed totally oblivious to everyone around them.

***555***

"There's something in the apartment for you," Auggie mentioned as he fished out his keys.

"There is?"

"I hope you like it," he said as he slid the loft door open.

Annie flipped on some lights, more than she usually used in the open space and there, over by the windows, was a pink bicycle. There were no tassels on the handlebars, but there was a plastic basket with a daisy on it.

"I don't want to rush you," Auggie started.

"You bought me a bike?" she left him by the kitchen island to inspect it closer.

"It's really more of a symbol. I know how independent you are Annie and god knows I am too, but I think one of the ways we went wrong before was not articulating our commitment, not making it solid."

"There's a basket, with a daisy," she felt the tears prick at the back of her eyes.

"That was more of a joke, you don't have to use the basket," he really wasn't sure how she was reacting.

"No, I love the basket, it is so retro cool and will be really useful."

"I want you to feel connected to a place, with me. It can be this place or it can be a new place, but I want it to be our place, Annie. With your bike waiting for you," he said as he put the Thai food on the counter and made his way to her.

She didn't say anything, he could hear her breathing which was the only indication she was even in the room still.

"Are you happy, mad, nostalgically sad? Do you think I am nuts to want his so soon?"

"I am…" Annie began and drew a breath to start again.

"I am so incredibly touched, this is a grand gesture Auggie. Most guys offer their girl a key in the hardware store bag they picked it up in. This is so thoughtful and so kind," she said as she moved around the bike to kiss him fiercely.

"So I didn't overstep?"

"No."

"So you'll move in?"

"This weekend even," she kissed him again.

"I love how free you are Annie, with yourself with your heart. I know that has hurt you in the past, that it has hurt us, but I don't want to eradicate that Annie Walker. I don't want to tie you down, I want to hold you close."

"I want that too. And I might be convinced to let you tie me down a time or two," she teased.

"We have noodles to eat," he reminded her before they abandoned another dinner for sex.

"And a whole weekend to ourselves," she kissed him again and again because why not.

"Noodles," he decided and pulled back, he then reached out and brushed her hair back, kissed her forehead.

"This bike wasn't here when we left this morning," she noted as she helped unpack the take out.

"You keep exhibiting those keen observational skills and people will think you're a spy," he grinned.

"How'd you get it in here? You were with me all day."

"Barber and Hollman, I had it delivered to Barber's and they brought it over this morning after we left."

"You owe them some booze."

"I'm good for it," Auggie laughed as he reached for plates.

"You're good for me," Annie added.

The End of Ep 3 – More on Monday!


	16. On Any Other Day Act 1

On Any Other Day Act 1

"Remember when I moved into my first safe house?" Annie asked Sunday night as they collapsed on the couch.

"I gave you a corkscrew," Auggie smiled as he sipped a glass of wine.

"That corkscrew saved my life," she grinned and took the wine for her own sip.

"I have more than one wine glass," he mentioned.

"I enjoy sharing," she returned it to him with her lip gloss on the rim.

"Well we will certainly be doing that. Living together and working together."

"Are you having second thoughts?" she turned to examine his face.

"Not at all, you?" he asked tentatively.

"None," she smiled and kissed him tenderly.

He wrapped his one free arm around her and attempted to find the tray on the coffee table for the wine glass.

"Careful with that," she stopped kissing long enough to put the glass safely aside.

"I have more than one, remember?" he smirked.

"But I don't want to stop doing this to clean up red wine and broken glass," she reasoned as she began inching his tee shirt up and off his body.

"I would walk over broken glass for this," he countered as he removed her sweater. "What is the state of the bed?"

"Covered in clothes and shoes," she reported.

"Couch it is," he decided as he leaned her back and shimmied on top of her.

"Mmmmm, we should finish putting stuff away before we do this," she argued very weakly as her fingers fumbled with his belt.

He kissed her, long and slow like an in depth conversation of Russian literature, and then he hopped to his feet, just out of the grasp of her fingers.

"You're probably right," he nodded, his hands on his slender hips.

Auggie turned to make his way over to the bedroom to finish putting away Annie's clothes when she launched herself off the couch, bumping the coffee table on her way to tackle him. The wine glass teetered before crashing to the floor.

"And you were worried about me?" he barked out a laugh.

"I'll get it later," she grabbed his hand and pulled him up to the bed, pushing her clothes to one side.

***555***

"We have eyes on her. And by we, I mean Calvin," Auggie smirked as Linda and Annie walked in Tuesday morning.

"She just went in to the salon," Calvin reported.

"Even if she's just getting a touch up she should be there for an hour," Linda estimated.

"Don't suppose the salon has security cameras you could…" Annie was interrupted when Auggie flipped a switch that put the exact view she was looking for up on the screen.

"Hack? Yes, they do," Auggie smirked.

"Always 1 step ahead of me, aren't you Anderson?"

"She's waiting for someone," Annie narrated.

"OK, she's talking to a stylist. Can you get a clean capture?" Annie asked as Calvin zeroed in on the salon employee and snapped it.

"We'll run this," Calvin said.

"OK, try and get everyone else too, employees and customers. If she is going here regularly it could be a meet. We'll be back in a bit, we're filling Joan in on the cell phone records," Annie explained.

***555***

"Her public cell is clean," Linda reported. "Nothing suspect, every number checks out."

"So she's got another phone," Joan shrugged.

"Most spies and criminals do," Annie quirked her mouth into a half smile.

Joan hit a button on her desk phone.

"Hey Joan," Auggie's voice filled the room.

"Auggie, any way to isolate cell phone signals in that salon?"

"Already on it. Annie told me about the cell records last night. So far nothing."

"Thanks," Joan disconnected the line.

"Always one step ahead," Annie grinned again and Joan returned a small grin.

"You and Auggie have worked together for a while?" Linda asked.

"Five years," Annie replied and the answer set off an alarm bell in her head.

Annie shook off the thought she had, tucked it away for later and got back to the cell phone discussion.

***555***

"She's finishing up," Calvin reported when Annie returned from Joan's office.

"Using the Amex?"

"Yep, we are locked in and will see if there are any phantom transactions piggy backing the legit one," Auggie said.

The transaction went through without controversy and Ksenia departed the salon.

"We have a lock on her cell signal," Calvin mentioned and a map on the wall showed her movement.

Korlova did not go to her car though. She stopped a few doors down from the salon.

"Where is she?" Annie asked.

Auggie honed in on the signal.

"Coffee shop, called Morning Star. Pulling up the records now."

"Oh my God," Annie closed her eyes and covered her mouth.

"What?" Auggie asked.

"The woman who owns that place is Zarya Fischer."

TBC…


	17. On Any Other Day Act 2

On Any Other Day Act 2

Auggie looked up in disbelief.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Unless she has a twin, that is Simon's sister."

"Give me 10 minutes to get everything on this woman and this business, let Joan know we're coming," Auggie instructed the room in general.

Annie didn't move, she just kept looking at the smiling picture of Zarya on the screen.

***555***

"It can't be a coincidence," Joan said as she reviewed Auggie's hasty, yet thorough report.

"Our mark is frequenting the establishment of the sister of a former FSB Operative? Probably not a coincidence," Linda added.

"We have no proof she frequents Morning Star," Auggie clarified.

"True, but still too odd for my liking," Joan conceded. "Annie when was the last time you communicated with Zarya?"

Annie looked up suddenly and stared at Joan.

"That's classified," Annie said quietly.

"Of course, Linda has clearance, but Calvin you will need to leave the room," Joan asked nicely and Calvin left his files with Annie before exiting.

Annie was not thrilled about Linda being in the room, but Joan was clearly comfortable with it.

"I saw her in Moscow, right after Auggie got me out of Lefortovo. I knew the FSB was after her, I gave her my clean docs and cash and told her to get as far away as she could."

"You knew this?" Joan was addressing Auggie when she saw no reaction from him.

"Yes."

"Nothing since then? No dead drops, no post cards, no message boards?" Joan asked again.

"Nothing. I figured she would stay in Russia, it's a big place she could have started over," Annie tried not to let her affection for Zarya cloud her judgment, but this was not looking good.

"Could you turn her?" Joan asked.

"Yes," Annie assured.

"I am still drilling down on the business, the money and what not," Auggie interjected.

"Good, you and the rest of the team keep on that. Annie, hang back a second," Joan instructed.

Linda and Auggie left the room and once the door snitched shut Joan sat.

"This is an interesting development," she sighed.

"If Zarya is involved she doesn't know it Joan or she is being used. I saw great kindness in her, innocence, she isn't like her brother," Annie defended.

"I hope you're right because we could use her to get to Korlova. When is your doctor's appointment?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"If everything is stable I want you and Auggie in Miami by nightfall. If you can turn her I want Auggie there to set up any tech right away."

"Of course," Annie said her palms itching at the idea of field work.

"I know this will be hard," Joan began.

"I've made my peace with the Simon situation," Annie shook her head.

"We're still people, Annie, don't lose sight of your emotions in all of this. That is when trouble starts."

"I'm learning that Joan."

"I should have taught you better, but I needed a lesson myself," Joan admitted.

***555***

"You OK?" Auggie asked later when they were finally alone for a couple minutes.

"Yeah, just surprised by it all," she sighed.

"I know you felt you owed Zarya something back then, I know how much you wanted to help her."

"It was stupid then, Eyal called me on it, but I would not have been able to live with myself if she was murdered because of me, not after Simon was murdered because of me."

"Simon was murdered because he was playing both sides and Lena was a traitor," Auggie corrected her.

"He wouldn't have been in Danielle's kitchen that day if it wasn't for me."

"So Lena would have had him killed somewhere else."

"I know," she nodded.

"Linda had a few questions when we got back," Auggie mentioned.

"Something is up with her, but Joan seems to trust her. There are dozens of field agents in Eastern Europe, Joan clearly vetted her, but I can't help feeling there is something there."

"Want me to dig in to it?" he asked.

"No, you have enough to do. I have another resource on it," she patted his hand.

"You cheating on me already?" he quirked an eyebrow.

"Only on research requests, I promise. What was Linda asking?"

"She wanted to know how long you worked the Fischer case. I shut her down real quick," Auggie frowned.

"Did you give her the look?"

"What look?"

"The 'you really do not want to go there with me' look. You have a good one," she chuckled.

"I do."

"Yes."

"Huh."

"Listen, before we get off track. Joan is sending us to Miami tomorrow, so we need to pack tonight and bring everything to the doctor's office tomorrow. We may even go straight to the airfield from there."

"Are you sure that is a good idea?" Auggie said quietly.

"We won't have time to go back to the apartment, the doctor's office is in Falls Church."

"No, I mean getting on a plane after a fairly intensive doctor's visit complete with stress test and what not."

"I did 3 miles on the treadmill Saturday with no problem, I feel good Auggie. This is just an initial observation and approach on Zarya."

"OK," he conceded.

"And you'll be there to keep me in line."

"I have never managed that before," he laughed.

"You have more weapons in your arsenal now," she whispered seductively before leaving him to think on that.

***555***

"Annie!" Eric Barber called and Annie turned, the man was so tall he didn't even need to raise his arm.

"Hey Barber," she smiled.

"Do you have a sec?"

"Sure."

Annie followed him into an empty conference room. He produced a signal jammer from his pocket and Annie frowned.

"Ears, everywhere," he smiled like a kid.

"OK…."

"I found out something very interesting and it could get me fired. What is it with you and Auggie asking me to do things that might get me fired?"

"Focus Eric."

"Right. So it seems that Linda Cordeiro got her first assignment overseas the same week you came up from the Farm five years ago. She was the Russian language expert in the New York City Station at the time, Arthur himself transferred her overseas and thus you were brought up to handle the Orlovsky case."

Annie nodded, that niggling thought in her head, 5 years in Eastern Europe, had Annie caused Linda's career path? Or more accurately had Ben Mercer dictated Linda's career path? Did Linda think she could have been the agency golden girl?

"Thanks Eric, this is really helpful," Annie assured him.

"No problem," he smiled and turned off the signal jammer.

***555***

"Do you remember my first day at the agency?" Annie asked as she pushed her dinner around on her plate that night.

"Quite vividly in fact," Auggie grinned.

"Remember I asked Joan straight out if there was someone else qualified for the Orlovsky case?"

"Yes."

"She said that person was gone, end of story. Did you think that was weird?"

"Annie, you've worked there for a while now, do you ever question a person's appearance or disappearance?"

"I guess not."

"What brings this up?" Auggie asked as he finished his pasta.

"The person that was qualified and then gone was Linda Cordeiro. She was stationed in New York, Joan had sent for her and at the last minute Arthur transferred her to Eastern Europe to bring me up as bait for Ben."

"So Ben Mercer ruins people's lives he hasn't even met," Auggie groused.

"I never once thought about who that woman was that was suddenly gone. I wonder if Joan has been waiting all these years to give Linda a break."

"Sounds like Joan, she doesn't forget things and she likes to make things right when she can. Linda has been an exemplary agent for the past 5 years. I did a tiny bit of digging myself," he admitted.

"Of course you did," Annie grinned.

"There is no way that Linda can know you took her spot on that exact mission though, it is still classified."

"Mmmm," she mumbled.

"You two just need to get to know one another. She sees you as Langley's super star, you're ridiculously smart, gorgeous and have a smoking hot boyfriend…" he trailed off with a grin, "but she doesn't know you yet. You'll get past it, I wouldn't worry about it at all."

"Well, you are right about one thing," she said as she slipped out of her chair and on to his lap.

Annie kissed along the column of his neck, nibbling at the lobe of his ear before whispering, "I am ridiculously smart."

TBC…


	18. On Any Other Day Act 3

On Any other Day Act 3

Annie couldn't sleep, it was 5 am Wednesday morning and she just lay there looking at Auggie. He seemed perfectly able to sleep. Annie didn't take that as any indication that he was not as nervous as she was about the doctor's appointment, she knew Auggie had trained himself to sleep through just about anything.

Also, unless the doctor said she was going to die imminently, which was highly unlikely, Auggie would accept any outcome. If the result was Annie could never go back in the field Auggie would be OK with that, might even prefer it secretly, but that was not what Annie wanted. If she were being honest she knew it was not what she wanted the second she saw Zarya's photo, this was her life, this chase this hunt to solve the puzzle to right the wrong, she couldn't do it from behind a desk like Auggie could, she just couldn't.

The alarm sounded at 6:30 and Auggie silenced it with a precise swat.

"How long you been awake?" he asked as he pulled her close.

"An hour or so," she said and he nodded.

"We should get up," he said a minute later.

"Not yet," she asked and tugged him even closer.

"OK," he whispered.

***555***

Annie knew the appointment was going to be long, they ran several tests and strapped her to several machines, took blood and imaging. Luckily she had one nurse who accompanied them for the whole morning, from department to department. When everything was done and Annie was back in her regular clothes, she and Auggie sat in the cardiologist's office.

"You alright?" Auggie asked as he found Annie's knee.

"I think I still have sticky stuff from the EKG leads," she scratched.

"I'll examine you thoroughly later," he smiled.

"I hope our hotel room has a good bathtub," she mentioned.

"We're going to have to move due to the utilitarian nature of the bathroom in the loft, right?" he laughed.

"It is very clean," she reached for a compliment.

The doctor arrived, Annie hadn't actually met him yet and was not at all surprised to see a middle aged white man with glasses.

"Anne, I am Dr. Carter, nice to meet you," he held out a hand and Annie stood and shook it.

"Hello, this is my boyfriend Auggie," Annie said.

"Nice to meet you," the doctor smiled and Auggie returned the gesture.

Annie retook her seat and crossed her legs, she reached for Auggie's hand and saw the small smile when he felt her lace their fingers together.

"You've been through a lot this morning and I need for you to understand we have no conclusive results of anything yet, all the tests need to be thoroughly analyzed."

Annie nodded and squeezed Auggie's hand, she knew this would be the case.

"Your history is very thorough, thank you. The fact that you got through everything here today with no issue indicates to me that your heart muscle is still quite strong, while the degree of damage is undetermined at this point I am certain you are not in imminent need of surgery."

"I am scheduled to go on a business trip, is that OK?" Annie asked vaguely.

"Where are you headed?" the doctor asked as he scribbled something in her chart.

"Miami."

"Yes, no problem," he smiled. "You have clearly been managing your condition Miss Walker, I will schedule the follow up for test results for 2 weeks from today if that is convenient?"

"Yes," Annie nodded she would make sure it was convenient.

"Certainly if you have any questions or problems during that time call the office immediately," the doctor looked up from the chart and Annie knew the appointment was over.

"Thank you doctor," she replied and stood tapping Auggie's hand.

Annie walked the halls of the hospital quietly but at a good clip and when she got outside the cold winter air filled her lungs hungrily as if she had been holding her breath since she stepped inside.

"Do we need to go back in?" Auggie asked as he felt Annie bend at the waist to take in more air.

"I'm fine," she laughed.

"You will be, yes," he promised.

"Guess we're going to Miami," Annie grinned and unlocked the car and dialed Joan.

***555***

"The jet is at the airfield," Joan's voice filled the car.

"You were confident then that I wasn't going to be admitted on the spot," Annie joked.

"I'm not a cardiologist Annie, but I hoped," Joan replied and Annie knew it wasn't just because of the mission at hand.

"Thanks."

"Have you worked out your approach?"

"We'll go over it on the plane, but I think we need to observe for at least a day, isolate Zarya at a time we know Ksenia is out of the area and then stumble upon the coffee shop on vacation. I want her to think I am out of the game at first, get a read on her see if she freaks," Annie mentioned and looked over to Auggie who was nodding in agreement.

"I agree Joan, this has to be very nuanced, we have no way of knowing if Ksenia has something on Zarya, if she is in danger," Auggie knew this woman meant a lot to Annie.

"OK, work it out on the plane and send me your action plan when you get to the hotel. Have a good flight," Joan disconnected the call.

"Wow, I expected more of a fight," Annie chuffed out a breath.

"You are the expert on Zarya Fischer, she isn't going to second guess you," Auggie shrugged.

"Never stopped her before."

"Annie, you have to let go of this. You and Joan are on a new playing field. You haven't been around much but Joan has changed, Mackenzie and your death really affected her. I joked about you two going to Hawaii, but maybe you should try dinner or something."

"Mmm," Annie hummed.

"We have time to grab lunch, you must be starved," Auggie said as he checked the time on his watch.

Annie had not been able to eat anything before the tests this morning so she had to agree that food sounded like a good idea.

"There's that great Greek place on the way to the airfield," she suggested and Auggie smiled.

***555***

"Did the asset get the device in place?" Auggie asked over the satellite hook-up from the plane.

"Yes," Calvin reported. "We have audio. So far nothing of interest, seems like a regular old coffee shop where the orange cream scones are to die for."

"I will be sure to verify that when we approach," Auggie laughed.

"Anything else?" Calvin asked.

"No, we are 30 minutes out," Annie replied.

"OK, check in from the hotel," Joan reiterated.

"Will do," Auggie agreed and hung up.

"I'm glad we don't have to go in tonight," Annie admitted as she packed up the mess they made and prepared for landing.

"You must be exhausted," Auggie tried to help with the computer equipment.

"I didn't sleep much last night," she sighed.

"I'll ease you into Special Forces sleep training," he laughed.

"I don't think there is much easing in Special Forces training."

"True."

"I'll settle for a glass of wine and that amazing tub I just know we are going to have, that should do it."

TBC…


	19. On Any Other Day Act 4

On Any Other Day Act 4

The hotel room was everything Annie wanted and more.

"You told Joan you wanted to play this as vacation. I assume from the smell of salt and the screech of birds we are pretty close to the beach," Auggie ascertained.

"Yeah, I think I could dive from the balcony to the ocean," Annie said as she returned from said balcony.

"Let's not test that theory," Auggie frowned. "Does the tub meet your requirements?"

"Exceeds them actually, I think it has jets," Annie exclaimed.

"And the bed, does it meet my requirements?"

"You have requirements for the bed?"

"Just that there is one," he chuckled.

"Oh there is one," she assured him. "In fact let me send these mission files over to Joan and I will help you get intimately acquainted with the bed."

"I thought you were tired," he said softly.

"May I never be too tired for this," she said as she turned him towards her and kissed him.

Auggie's hands came swiftly to her waist, holding her close, pulling her near. His own relief at the doctor's assessment that Annie was not in grave danger ran very close to the surface. Auggie ended the kiss grudgingly and wrapped her tighter still in his long arms, her head against the strong steady beating of his heart.

Annie thought she heard him say "I love you" but it might simply have been the rhythm his heart beat out.

***555***

Auggie trailed a washcloth over her skin when they finally relaxed in the tub. He found the few spots were the adhesive from the testing leads remained and rubbed gently to coax it off her smooth skin. His fingers changed place with the washcloth to insure he got it all and they travelled over the varied terrain of her scars, the peeks of her breasts and the shallows of her clavicle until she actually purred.

"Nice," he wasn't asking her he was declaring it so.

"I want to play," she giggled and turned in his arms, brought her own pruned wet fingers to his neck and watched as droplets of water snaked between the muscles and tendons there.

"God," he growled out as her teeth latched on to an ear lobe and scraped along his chin before her tongue darted out to taste the salty skin in the hollow of his throat.

"I love this spot," she whispered against his skin and felt the goosebumps rise there.

"Mmmmm? I'm fond of this one," he said as his fingers traced her spine to the arch in her back. "And this one." He found an arm and kissed her pulse point which he noticed was steady and strong.

Auggie felt Annie tremble under his lips.

"Cold?"

"A little," Annie admitted as the water cooled around them.

She stood then and negotiated the edge of the tub, offering a cool wet hand to Auggie. He kissed her shoulder and handed her a towel before taking one for himself. Annie turned to leave the bathroom and Auggie indicated he would be right along.

When he emerged from the bathroom Auggie couldn't tell where she was.

"Annie?"

"Here," she indicated a spot near the open balcony doors.

He found her and her skin was cool, but the big fluffy towel covered her body, he felt it as she leaned back against his bare chest.

"You OK?"

"Just thinking about Zarya," she admitted.

"Yeah."

"I'm driving myself crazy with this, I need to sleep," she moved them enough to close the doors.

"What can I do?" he asked.

"Distract me," she whispered.

His smile was so genuine in the soft light of the room, his desire to make her feel loved and safe just radiated off of him, it always had even before they ever touched each other like this. She pushed it away so many times, felt it smother her, thought it controlling, but at this moment in his arms she wanted nothing more than to submit to it.

"I can't remember not loving you Auggie," she confessed.

***555***

Annie emerged from a cocoon of soft linens to the smell of coffee and the sight of Auggie sitting up next to her with headphones on. The room was bright and the doors to the balcony open again letting in the salt air.

"Morning," she mumbled.

"You are really embracing our cover," he grinned.

"Huh?" she said eloquently as she looked at the clock. "Shit, Auggie it is almost 9:00!"

"You needed the sleep, today is just surveillance, I got it covered," he tapped the headphones.

"Anything new?"

"Nah, it is rush hour in a coffee shop, lots of lattes and muffins coming and going. Heard a good deal of Spanish, but no Russian so I am keeping up," he promised.

"Thanks, partner."

"Anytime, speaking of coffee and muffins, there is breakfast over there somewhere," he pointed.

Annie slipped from the bed and moved to the bathroom, she emerged later with her hair scraped back into a ponytail and Auggie's bathrobe on. She intercepted some breakfast food and a cup of coffee and brought it all back to the huge bed.

Auggie unplugged the headphones so the audio filled the room, they ate quietly and listened. Annie handed Auggie a croissant and he stole some of her coffee when his was empty. Suddenly Annie reached out and stilled his arm.

"That's Zarya," she said.

They listened as the woman's voice flitted in and out, she was clearly moving around the café talking to staff and customers. The Russian accent was noticeable but much more subtle than 2 years ago, Annie thought she must have been here a while now.

When they were done with breakfast Auggie left Annie with the laptop while he showered and dressed, she handed it back to him to do the same. Finally around 11:00 Auggie turned all the audio over to Calvin in DC so they could head out.

***555***

Morning Star Café was only a few blocks from the hotel, so Annie and Auggie took advantage of the warm weather and sunshine to stretch their legs. It was closing in on lunch time so there was decent traffic in the hip little neighborhood with lots of shops and eateries and they blended right in to the tourists in their shorts and sunglasses.

Auggie could feel tension in Annie's arm, focus and he tried to keep her occupied by asking for descriptions of their surroundings.

"There are lots of overly tanned folks and one guy who has apparently never heard of SPF, he is going to hurt later," Annie cringed.

"The sun feels good though," Auggie tilted his face up.

"Lots of couples, a few folks alone, not too many families," Annie gave him the demographics. "I think there are some more family-friendly options further down the beach."

"We almost there?" he asked as he felt Annie slow to a snail's pace.

"Yeah," she sighed.

"I'd offer to do this first pass on my own, but visual surveillance isn't really my strong suit," Auggie said with a wry grin.

Annie laughed, which was the result he was hoping for.

"Come on Cowboy, we have a café to walk past."

***555***

"Anything on the audio to deter a chance meeting?" Annie asked the team in DC.

"Nothing, no sign of Korlova since that day of her hair appointment and nothing even remotely suspect from the customers we listened to today or yesterday," Calvin reported.

"You have Korlova's cell signal tracked still?" Auggie asked.

"Yes, she didn't leave the house today. Of course her house is like a small city so that isn't shocking," Millie snarked.

"OK, we'll touch base in the morning, if Korlova is out of sight you will approach. In the meantime hold up in the hotel, you don't want to bump into Zarya on the street, we want to control the meet," Joan cautioned.

"You got it," Annie and Auggie agreed and hung up.

"Another night alone in a hotel room together, whatever will we do?" Annie smiled as Auggie checked some files on the computer.

"I can think of one or a dozen things," he grinned.

TBC…


	20. On Any Other Day Act 5

On Any Other Day Act 5

Friday morning in Miami was a hot one, the air conditioner in the hotel barely holding back the heat of the sun. Annie dressed in a loose short sun dress and flip flops, left her hair curly and free. She had a tiny bit of tan left from Hawaii, enough to look like she had been here for a couple days and at her arm she had a handsome man.

"You sure you want me to go with you?" Auggie asked as he fastened his watch.

"Of course," she said without hesitation.

"She's Simon's sister," he reminded her unnecessarily.

"She understood things between Simon and I were complicated and he has been dead for 2 years Auggie, she won't be surprised that I have moved on. In fact, I want her to think I moved on in all ways," she said indicating her career.

"If she seems approachable as an asset I will tell her the truth, but if she is working with Korlova I don't for a second want her to think I am a threat. This is just 2 old friends randomly bumping in to each other."

"OK," he nodded.

"I'm working as a translator for a finance company, you work at the Smithsonian," she gave them their cover.

"How retro," he chuckled.

"Easy to remember," she kissed his cheek.

"We met last year at a fundraiser," Auggie added to the cover.

"Good," Annie agreed. "We're escaping the Northeast winter for a few days."

"And we really like coffee, of course we wound up in a café," he finished it was a solid cover.

"Let's do this."

***555***

Annie slowed them at the same spot as the day before, she could see Zarya at the counter talking to a staff person. Zarya smiled, patted the young man on the shoulder and then disappeared through a swinging door to the kitchen.

"OK, she's in the back," Annie began moving again.

It was later in the morning so the café was less crowded and Annie led Auggie to a small table near the window. She left him there and went to order coffee and one of those orange cream scones. Zarya was still in the back.

"It's cute in here," Annie said as she handed Auggie his coffee and cut the scone into smaller pieces.

She watched as he trailed his fingers along the table before bumping the plate and selecting a piece.

"Yeah?" he said before popping the pastry in his mouth and grinning at the smooth orange flavor.

"Mmmm all yellow and warm, sunny," she assessed.

"Nice," Auggie said and she was unsure if he meant the décor or the scone which was pretty damn tasty.

"Here we go," Annie announced as she looked up and saw Zarya emerge from the kitchen with a tray of muffins.

Zarya didn't see Annie at first, her focus on the display case she was filling. Annie made small talk with Auggie about a restaurant they should try for dinner, she didn't want to be too blatantly loud or obnoxious, just kept a steady stream of laughter and conversation going. Finally Zarya looked up and made eye contact.

Annie saw the slight shift from disbelief to concern to joy that spread across Zarya's face. She covered the conflicting feelings with a warm smile though, wiped her hands on a cloth and scurried around the counter to meet Annie half way.

"Is it you?" Annie asked not wanting to use Zarya's old name knowing that no matter what she had left that identity behind in Moscow.

"It is, what are you doing here?" Zarya asked with a mix of awe and concern.

"Escaping winter," Annie said with a grin as they separated. "It is cold up North."

Auggie had turned toward their voices but sat quietly and awaited Annie's lead.

"Come meet my boyfriend," Annie brought Zarya to the table.

"Auggie, you won't believe this, but this is my old friend…"

"Lara," Zarya filled in the blank.

"I met Lara when I was abroad in college," Annie lied easily.

"It has been so long," Zarya smiled sadly.

"Lara, this is my boyfriend, Auggie."

"It is so nice to meet you."

"You too," Auggie smiled. "Annie always speaks so fondly of her time abroad."

The three made small talk for a while. Zarya gave recommendations for good Cuban food, Annie talked about her new job in the financial world and Auggie raved about the orange scone he had inhaled.

"Hey, I only got one bite," Annie teased him and squeezed his hand.

"Let me get you another one, to take back to the hotel," Zarya offered.

"Does it come with a lock and key to keep this one off of it," she smirked.

Annie squeezed Auggie's hand again when Zarya was out of ear shot.

"All good?" he asked Annie her assessment.

"She was definitely surprised," she said quickly and squeezed again to indicate Zarya's return.

"I have to get ready for the lunch crowd, it was wonderful to see you, enjoy the scone," Zarya said as she left the bag on their table and slipped back to the kitchen.

"How about we finish our coffee on the beach?" Annie suggested and Auggie nodded.

***555***

"Anything?" Auggie asked as they found a remote patch of sand to sit.

"Yep," Annie said as she opened the bag.

Under the scone, a small scrap of paper. Annie unfolded it, the butter from the scone leaving a speckled translucency, but the message was clear.

"Can't talk here, meet me 9pm Hemingway's on South. Alone," Annie read.

Annie tore the note into a million little pieces and sprinkled them in the remains of her coffee.

The End of Episode 4

Note: Thanks so much for all the thoughtful reviews, I am so glad people are enjoying the story! Episode 5 should begin Monday.


	21. Driven to Tears Act 1

Driven to Tears Ep 5 Act 1

"You hungry?" Auggie asked as he kissed along the smooth bare skin of her shoulders.

"Yeah," Annie purred and he wasn't sure if she was agreeing to the food or the kissing but he rolled away from her and picked up the hotel phone, he had mapped the room service button their first night.

Annie rolled on to her side and watched as he ordered sandwiches and salad, his long body completely bare to her. She snuck her toe out from the sheet she had cocooned around her legs and traced the quad muscle from his knee to his hip and giggled when he failed to hang up the phone properly the first 3 times.

"Not funny Annie, you are distracting me," he faux frowned before deftly capturing her foot and kissing the instep.

"This is so much better than how we used to prepare for missions," Annie laughed as she made her way on top of Auggie and kissed him.

"Is tonight a mission?" he asked honestly.

"I don't know," Annie admitted.

"She wants you to come alone."

"That could be for my own safety, she may be protecting my identity from you, notice how she never used my name this morning?"

"I did."

"Simon taught her well, she is following protocol for cover, even if nothing sinister is going on. She is clearly living as someone else, which we knew, but she doesn't want to discuss it at her place of business, which makes sense. This could be nothing or it could be everything, we won't know until I go," Annie shrugged and kissed him again.

"I just wish you would let me wire you," he trailed a finger down her bare chest where a wire would typically reside.

"Can't build trust with a wire. I am turning an asset, that is all and probably not even that tonight. I just want to know what I am up against," Annie shrugged, Auggie's finger still on her body.

"We'll be in a van with eyes on the place, and not my eyes but someone who can actually see," he smirked.

"I appreciate the precaution, but I really think this will be all fine," she smiled and he could hear it.

"OK, then let's go back to what we were doing before," he found her hips, slid his hands up her body to her shoulders and pulled her down on top of him.

"What about dinner?" she giggled.

"Thirty minutes at least, I can do innumerable things to your body in thirty minutes," he smiled sincerely.

"Give it your best shot," she smiled back.

***555***

Annie entered the bar right at 9:00 pm, she scanned the small room quickly and saw Zarya at a table at the back, she also noticed the room appeared to be filled with all male couples. Zarya had invited her to a gay bar. There were a few women scattered about and the men gave her the type of appreciative gaze that she enjoyed about a gay bar, one that said she had decent taste in shoes. Annie smiled as she moved to Zarya's table.

"Annie," Zarya smiled as she stood and embraced her.

"Zarya," Annie whispered.

The hugged for a moment before Zarya separated and retook her seat.

"Let me get Matt and get you a drink," she smiled and made eye contact with a waiter.

Annie ordered a martini and Matt scurried off.

"Come here often?" Annie asked.

"I like it here, it feels safe," Zarya shrugged and Annie understood.

"Are you? Safe?" Annie began.

"Yes. What about you?"

"I am. New job, new boyfriend, new life," Annie smiled.

"Auggie seems nice, he is very handsome," Zarya sipped her own drink.

"He is, both of those things," Annie nodded.

"I'm glad."

"Can I ask how you are? How you wound up here so far from home?" Annie sipped her drink.

"It was a long journey, a rough couple of years, but I am happy here," Zarya nodded.

"I'm glad, tell me everything," Annie patted the woman's knee and settled in to get the scoop.

TBC…


	22. Driven to Tears Act 2

Driven to Tears Ep 5 Act 2

Auggie was doing no one any good in the van. They had no audio inside the bar and he wasn't very good at watching the exits, but he had to be there, had to be close to Annie on their first field work together again after quite a while. The 2 local guys actually watching the bar were talking about basketball and life in Miami post LeBron, they were younger than Auggie and he wasn't going to interject with his childhood memories of Michael Jordan so he sat quietly and listened to some reports Calvin had forwarded on Korlova's comings and goings.

"She's kind of hot," one of the younger guys mentioned and Auggie's ears perked up.

"Walker, yeah, but I heard she's also nuts," the other one added.

"Not always the worst combination," the first one shrugged.

"I heard she slept with her handler, a Mossad agent and a former FSB Op."

"At the same time?" the first one laughed.

"No, you perv," the other one smacked him.

"She never slept with the Mossad agent," Auggie interjected, "for the record."

The two guys froze when they realized they were being overheard.

"Now could you stop talking about my Operative and keep an eye on her?"

The two men went wide eyed when they realized the blind tech op on this mission was actually Agent Walker's handler.

***555***

"Eventually I wound up in Murmansk," Zarya had descried her journey from Moscow after Annie had last seen her. "I always loved the sea and in Moscow we only have the river, you know."

"Moscow is both the most beautiful and most oppressive city in the world," Annie sighed and Zarya nodded in agreement.

"I had the money you gave me and my own savings, but it ran out fast. There aren't many options in Murmansk, but there are a lot of men working the docks," Zarya inferred and Annie quickly took the leap.

"Oh Zarya," Annie frowned.

"I wasn't proud, but I needed the money. I worked for a man who was mostly kind and he paid me well enough."

"Did he hurt you?"

"No, he said his girls had to be perfect, he never laid a hand on us."

"I'm so sorry," Annie fought back tears at the thought of Zarya prostituting herself.

"It was OK. One day a woman approached me in the shops and told me she could help me."

"Really?"

"I was suspicious of course, after everything with Simon, but she said she was looking for investment opportunities, she needed to diversify her money in the US and would I be interested in moving to America, starting over. I had already resigned myself to starting over after leaving Moscow, but this sounded better than what I had in Murmansk.'

"She helped you open the café," Annie stated, it wasn't a question.

"Yes, her husband owned the storefront and she loaned me some money, which I have paid back, to get it up and running. She helped me find an apartment in one of her husband's buildings and subsidized the rent, she saved my life," Zarya admitted.

"That's amazing," Annie smiled.

"No one at the shop knows about my old life, they think I moved here after university to get away from the cold in Russia, that's why I didn't want to talk there," Zarya admitted.

"Of course, believe me, I understand not wanting to talk about your past," Annie grinned.

"How are you Annie?"

***555***

"Auggie, I finally weeded through all the red tape on the building the Morning Star Café is located in," Millie reported.

"and?"

"It is buried in about 5 different shell corporations, but the final layer is owned by Korlova's husband. We also traced the building where Zarya is living…"

"Let me guess, also Korlova's husband?"

"Yep."

"The man does own half of Miami, but that is way too much of a coincidence."

"Joan thinks so too."

"I wish I could hear what Annie and Zarya were saying," Auggie sighed.

"I'm sure you'll get a full report," Millie said kindly and hung up.

Auggie closed his eyes, he really hoped so.

***555***

"I had a rough couple years too, nothing like what you went through though," Annie smiled.

"You have a new job?" Zarya asked subtly.

"Yes, translating for a foreign investment firm, it isn't all that exciting, but it pays well and I get to travel still," Annie kept up her cover for the time being.

"How long have you and Auggie been together?"

"A while, we met at a fundraiser, he was the handsomest man in the room," Annie said certain that would be true of any room Auggie was in.

"I'm glad for you," Zarya said genuinely.

***555***

"She's out and in a cab," local guy #1 reported.

"And Zarya?" Auggie asked.

"On foot."

"Her apartment is a couple blocks from here, one of you tail her make sure she goes home. Reed, we're following Operative Walker back to the hotel," Auggie instructed the driver as local guy #2 hopped out of the van.

"Yes sir," Reed replied and eased the van away from the curb.

Auggie's cell rang.

"Is that you three cars back?" Annie asked.

"Yep, we've got a guy on Zarya, everything OK?"

"No problems, I'll debrief you back at the hotel."

"Right behind you," he promised.

***555***

Auggie hung back in the van for a few minutes after Annie entered the hotel, they wanted to make sure no one had followed her. When all seemed clear he said good night to the team and made his way up to their room.

"Annie?" he asked as he entered the artificially chilly room.

"Here," she announced from somewhere near the bed, her voice thick.

"You OK?" he asked as he slipped the hotel key back into his wallet.

"No," she admitted and he could hear the pain in her voice, but knew it wasn't physical.

"Come here," he folded his cane and found the small table next to the door where he had been leaving it.

She slipped into his arms as her body shook with the sobs that had threatened to bubble over all evening.

"What is it?" he asked over and over as she continued to cry in his arms.

"I ruin everyone's lives," she managed.

"Oh Annie," he didn't try to argue with her just let her cry.

***555***

After the tears slowed down Auggie took her over to the foot of the bed and they sat side by side. Annie still clung to him, he stroked her hair and shivered a bit from the cool air and his now wet shirt. Annie started at the beginning of Zarya's story and reported everything. It wasn't her typical clinical report and she would have to clean it up and make it official for Joan in the morning, but it was everything.

"Zarya had a good life in Moscow. If I had listened to you, if I had come home before I killed Lena she would still be there."

"We do what we need to do," Auggie shrugged and Annie looked up surprised.

"When I asked you to come home, to not kill Kahani, to do what was right, you did. You asked me to come home to you and I put you off until after IO finished my ill-advised vendetta, I always put you off Auggie," she said with awe.

Auggie didn't respond.

"Doesn't that make you angry? I disregarded your orders, your requests, your love time after time Auggie. I lied to you to protect other people even when I knew it would hurt you. How can you trust me anymore? " Annie scooted back to really take him in.

"How do you still love me?" she asked.

TBC…


	23. Driven to Tears Act 3

Driven to Tears Act 3

"Annie…" Auggie sighed and stroked her hair again.

"No, Auggie, I am serious. Sitting with Zarya all I could think about was your voice on that phone asking me to come home so we could talk. How could I ignore that? How could I blow off the emotion in your voice on that call," she said as she stood up and separated from him.

"You'd been through a lot," Auggie said as he dropped his hands between his knees and his chin to his chest.

"You watched your whole unit die, it was the last thing you saw and yet you were able to reign in your emotions when confronted with Kahani. I killed Lena, I killed Henry without a second thought."

"I had time and perspective between my incident and my encounter with Kahani, you were still bleeding when you faced Lena and still dead when you faced Henry. It's different Annie."

"You know what's funny, if you were to look at us, most people would say you are the emotional one. When it really matters though you know how to manage your emotions better than I do."

"I have more training."

"Why do you keep making excuses for me?" Annie sniffled.

"Because you are being too harsh on yourself," he said as he looked up.

"I don't think anyone has been harsh enough on me. Everyone has let me off a pretty giant hook," Annie crouched down and gathered her breath.

She didn't want to alarm Auggie but her heart was beating a little faster than she would like.

"You OK?" he arched an eyebrow and she actually rolled her eyes, she couldn't actually hide anything from him.

"I'm fine," she said a little shakier than she would have preferred.

"Come here, lay down," Auggie reached up and pulled back the duvet from the bed.

"I have to file my report," she said as she stood cautiously, her head swam a bit.

"Annie, lay down," Auggie stood making himself as tall as possible.

She didn't say anything, but he felt her move past him and crawl into the bed, the swish of the blankets as she cocooned herself. He wordlessly went to the table where he hoped her purse was. He found it and opened the small clutch to retrieve the injector.

"Do you need this?" he asked.

"Maybe," she admitted as she breathed slowly, in through her nose out through her mouth.

Auggie brought it to the bedside, left it on the table. He wanted nothing more than to wrap himself around her, hold her close, but he thought she probably needed the space and all the air she could get. He moved instead back to the table and opened a bottle of water and poured it into the nearby glass.

He thought for a bit about what Annie had said about him being the more emotional of the two normally, but he was a soldier, when a situation called for it he could shut down all emotion and get the job done. Right now he had to manage Annie's physical and mental well-being and not succumb to his own desire to hold her.

He moved to the bathroom and placed a face cloth under some lukewarm water, he wanted to sooth without chilling her further.

"Put this on your eyes," he said gently as he held out the cloth.

"I'm OK, Auggie, it wasn't an attack," she said her voice much stronger.

"Good," he smiled the small smile she loved, the one she knew hid deeper emotion.

***555***

Annie emerged from the shower smelling of lavender and feeling better to find Auggie had the computer up and running.

"Joan'll wonder why it took so long to report in," she sighed as she sat across from him.

"It's only been an hour since the team dispersed," he shrugged.

"It's still late, I kept her waiting," Annie braided her wet hair.

"Let's get it over with then," he hit the com link.

"How'd it go?" Joan began by way of introduction.

"Good. My first impression is Zarya is not involved directly, she seems to have an inkling that something not quite above board is going on, but she is not actually doing anything illegal," Annie began.

"Do you think you can turn her still?"

"Yes, but it is going to be harder than I originally thought. Korlova rescued Zarya from a bad situation, Zarya will be loyal to her," Annie explained.

"What kind of situation?" Joan asked.

"Prostitution," Auggie filled in so Annie didn't have to relive it again.

"Yeah, that makes things trickier," Joan agreed.

"We'll have to have some air tight evidence against Korlova, I can't just go in and say she's a bad guy, we have to prove it."

"OK, we're getting closer to that. The team has done some work on the other terrorist attacks the past few days we are starting to make some connections. You guys come back in the morning, we'll regroup," and with that Joan hung up.

"Vacation's over," Auggie joked.

"I'm exhausted," Annie admitted with a yawn.

"We can pack in the morning," Auggie said as he felt the time on his watch.

"Come to bed?" she asked as she found his hand and squeezed.

"Yeah, in a minute," he promised and returned the squeeze.

Annie crawled back under the messed up covers and listened as Auggie moved around the room, brushed his teeth and stripped out of his clothes. She smiled when he slipped into the bed behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his nose in the crook of her neck.

"Are you OK?" he asked quietly against her skin.

"Physically or mentally?" she chuckled mirthlessly.

"Either. Both."

"Physically I am fine, just drained. Mentally I am kind of all over the place."

"That's to be expected Annie. Sure, we had a nice vacation and we talked a lot and you saw Danielle, but it isn't that easy. We can't snap our fingers and make the past few years go away. There aren't any do overs in real life," he whispered but his voice sounded harsh against the stillness in the room.

"I know," she said sullenly.

"We have made great strides and we are getting back everything that is important, but we will hit potholes. There will be difficult memories and hard cases and unforeseen challenges along the way. In my case more unforeseen than you," he smiled against her neck and she smiled in return.

"Har har."

"The moment screamed out for a blind joke. My point is, the only way we are going to get better is if we tackle these moments together. We have to hold on to each other, literally and figuratively," he said and squeezed her for good measure.

"I know," she was quiet again.

"Do you? You let go of me a few years ago and I know you don't need my training wheels as much in the field, but we went off the rails there Annie. It wasn't a sudden cliff either, it was a slow roll right into a brick wall."

"You are really into the evocative images tonight, blind guy," she leaned forward and kissed his forearm where it wrapped around her.

"It's easy to pull out the big things: Jai died, we got reassigned, I got engaged and unceremoniously dumped after getting abducted by Somali pirates, you got shot, you killed Lena, we had sex, you killed Henry. Those are the big moments, but it was all the little things before and during those events that broke us Annie," his voice shook a little and Annie leaned into his embrace.

She couldn't speak so she nodded knowing his face was right against her head and he could feel her agreement.

"So did tonight help or hurt us?" she asked truly confused.

"We both spoke and neither of us ran away and I am pretty sure we were honest if reluctant. I say that is a good night all around," he assured her.

She turned then in his arms, brought her nose against his, her warm cheek against his cool one and kissed him softly.

TBC…


	24. Driven to Tears Act 4

Driven to Tears Act 4

The next morning Annie showered and dressed and offered to pack while Auggie did the same. As soon as she heard the water start she grabbed her phone and dialed.

"Hello," Joan answered.

"Hi Joan, it's Annie."

"Everything OK?"

"Yeah, we are getting ready for the flight back, I was just wondering, ummm, Joan…."

"What is it Annie?"

"I was wondering if we could talk when I'm back, maybe have dinner," Annie squinted.

"Sure," Joan said with her normal matter of fact tone.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I know I am your boss again Annie, but I would really like to catch up."

"OK, just us, no Auggie no Arthur," Annie clarified.

"I'll make a reservation and send it to your phone."

"Thanks," Annie hung up with a smile.

"I'm almost ready," Auggie startled her as he emerged in a towel.

"For a scene in a Cinemax movie maybe," she laughed.

"You feeling better?" he asked.

"I forgot how well I sleep with you next to me," she said by way of an answer.

"It does feel good," he agreed and was happy to accept a kiss.

"We have a plane to catch," she said as she kissed him one more time and felt his fingers slip under her tee shirt.

"It's the private jet, it'll wait," he started to walk her back towards the bed.

"The sooner we get on it the sooner we can do this in our own bed," she reasoned.

"Mmmm, fair point, but this bed is right here," he leaned past her to illustrate said bed.

"You are incorrigible and sexy, it is a dangerous combination, but we need to get home, review some files and unpack. I have plans tonight," she kissed him one more time and turned him back towards the bathroom.

"Since when?"

"Since I took your advice and asked Joan to have dinner," Annie admitted.

"Good work, Walker," he winked at her before removing his towel with a flourish.

"Clothes, on," Annie instructed and then muttered something that sounded a lot like "I can't believe I am telling him to put clothes on" under her breath.

***555***

"Hey guys," Annie said as she found Millie and Calvin in the main conference room.

"Couple weeks in and we are already working Saturdays," Millie smiled.

"Joan said you made some progress on linking the terrorist attacks," Auggie mentioned.

"Yeah, here are some ammunition reports, shell casings at 5 different sites can be traced back to the same arms dealer out of Budapest," Calvin handed Annie the file.

"How did none of the other agencies pick that up?" Auggie asked.

"All 5 of the cases were handled by a different agency, they never checked," Millie sighed.

"Remember when you told me the term 'intelligence' was a bit of a misnomer?" Annie poked Auggie in the side and he smiled.

"Bad for them, good for us. Any chance we can tie Korlova to the arms dealer?"

"That's what we are working on now. This guy, Hubert is quite the fellow, dabbles in all sorts of things beyond arms, but he covers his trail and his clients very well," Calvin explained.

"Known associates?" Auggie asked.

"Very few, but we are running them all now. Your boys in the DPD are helping out," Millie smiled.

"They'll get something," Auggie grinned.

"Linda is on her way to Budapest, she still has some contacts there, she had heard of Hubert of course, but never had a good bead on him, she's lighting some fires," Millie continued.

"Good," Annie smiled, that would normally be her job, but Linda very likely had better allies in the region.

Auggie gave her a look that said he wasn't entirely sure she meant that and Annie just squeezed his hand reassuringly.

***555***

"You were cool about the Linda thing," Auggie brought it up again when they finally got home later that afternoon.

"I am learning to be a team player, remember?"

"I remember, I was just impressed you did," he shrugged.

"Smart ass," she whacked him with the pile of mail she had in her hand.

"Give me that, you have a dinner to primp for," he took the mail and stole a kiss.

"I do," she nodded and lugged her suitcase up to the bedroom.

Auggie dumped the mail on the island, turned the heat up and opened a bottle of wine as Annie rifled through her closet for a dress to wear to the very fancy place Joan texted her for dinner.

"I'm going to be eating better than you tonight, babe," she teased.

"I plan on microwaving frozen lasagna so I think that is a safe bet," he nodded as he brought her the wine he poured.

"Thanks," she clinked her glass against his and enjoyed the rich red wine.

"I'm glad you and Joan are having dinner," he said with a smile.

"I know."

"Joan has always had my back Annie."

"I know that too," she assured him with one more kiss before taking her wine and her silky undergarments to the bathroom to shower.

***555***

"Thank you for meeting me," Annie said as they were seated, "and for picking such a nice place."

"My pleasure," Joan smiled as she spread her napkin on her lap.

"How's the baby?" Annie made small talk as they looked at the menu and ordered some wine.

"Not such a baby these days," Joan frowned slightly.

"I'm sure he is very cute," Annie smiled.

In a move that Annie could not believe was happening, Joan took out her phone and in a couple of swipes there was a picture of Mackenzie Campbell in front of her.

"Oh, he is cute," Annie gushed and felt the seemingly omnipresent tears swim in front of her eyes.

"He's here Annie, with both of his parents free and safe, because of you. I hope you know how very much that means to Arthur and I."

Annie just nodded and cleared her throat. What had been meant as small talk had gotten their dinner off to a heightened start. In typical fashion, the waitress chose that moment to reappear for their order.

The food was as delicious as the restaurant was beautiful and Annie realized she and Auggie had subsisted on room service turkey clubs for a couple of days.

"Joan, I am still working through everything that happened the past few years. Auggie and I are trying to help each other, but I would be interested in seeing someone at the company, if that is possible."

"It is always possible," Joan said trying to suppress her surprise

"I can't put it all on Auggie and some of it is about Auggie," Annie shrugged.

"You don't have to explain Annie, I understand. You can love your partner and still need someone else to talk to, that is very normal."

"I've never been very good at normal," Annie scoffed.

"No, you are far from normal Annie. I hope you learn to manage that and not always see it as a burden."

"I'm sorry I lied to you," Annie said sincerely.

"Which time?" Joan asked with an arched eyebrow that was very familiar.

"Touché. This time I mean my heart. I did that to protect myself and no one else and it is much less defensible than some of my other lies," Annie stared at her nearly clear plate.

"I'm not letting you off the hook Annie, but I do understand. Self-preservation is a necessary instinct in our line of work. You spent the past year protecting everyone else at great personal sacrifice, it was natural to need to protect you. I regret that you felt the need to protect yourself from me," Joan sighed.

"It was everybody at first. Auggie only knew a month or so before you, I didn't even confide in him. I didn't want him in that position."

"Even apart you two are always covering each other."

"I love him Joan."

"I know you do. I do too, in my way, and we will always have that bond Annie."

"I remember that awful day we were negotiating his hostage release," Annie rolled her eyes. "He got himself out of that one too, we just sent in a chopper. I guess I just sweep in with transport, that man can get himself out of anything."

"He's pretty remarkable, but he does need you Annie," Joan smiled.

"I hope so."

"When Arthur and I fell in love I thought our dynamic was so weighted in his favor, he was so much more in control than I was, literally and figuratively. I had no idea how much he needed me, how balanced we really were," Joan admitted.

"How did you balance it?"

"Hard work. Time. Even the great romances of all time are work Annie, anything worth having is."

"I want this, with Auggie."

"Then you need to put in the work with him and on your own," Joan said and Annie truly believed she understood what she was saying, remembered that day with Calder and Rossabi when Joan's addiction was revealed.

"This dinner was supposed to be about you and I, not Auggie," Annie mentioned.

"I accept your apology and I hope you will accept mine."

"You have nothing to apologize for."

"I do. There were a lot of moments over the past five years when I could have been kinder, more understanding. There were moments, especially early on when I was blindly jealous of your potential. I could have been a better leader."

Annie just nodded again.

"Annie, you and I are going to be fine."

TBC…


	25. Driven to Tears Act 5

Driven to Tears Act 5

Annie slipped into the loft unsure if Auggie would still be up. It wasn't late, but she was trying to be a considerate roommate. Her worry was quickly erased when she saw him sitting on the couch with his long legs stretched out in front of him and his headphones on and his eyes open.

"You waited up," she said as she deposited her purse and a small paper bag on the credenza, it wasn't the original credenza and she wondered what happened to the last one.

"How late is it?" he asked as he slipped the headphones off.

"Just 11:00 she reported," hanging her coat and joining him on the couch.

"How was dinner?"

"So good, I had this salmon thing it was like heaven," she grinned.

"I'm glad to hear that, but I wasn't really asking about the food," he wrinkled his brow and she kissed him there first.

"I know. It was good, we're good. It was the easiest and the hardest yet," she said confusingly.

"How so?"

"You and Danielle love me. I know Joan respects me and likely cares for me beyond the confines of our job, but she doesn't have to forgive me, she doesn't have the stake in me that you and Danielle do, which made it easier to apologize, but harder to know how she really feels."

"Mmmmm, but Joan isn't one to bullshit," Auggie kissed along the column of her neck.

"True."

"She also understands what it took for you to even acknowledge the air needed to be cleared," he murmured from his spot at her collarbone now.

"Yeah. I'm going to see a company shrink," she dropped that one.

"Joan's idea?" he sat up straighter.

"Mine actually," she pulled him close again and kissed his lips.

"Good," he said between sweet simple kisses.

"How was your frozen lasagna?"

"Passable," he shrugged.

"What would you say if I happened to stop at Oak Leaf and brought you one of those giant cupcakes?"

"I would say you are an angel sent from heaven with buttercream frosting," he grinned.

"It's over there," she hooked a thumb over her shoulder and moved to get it.

"In a minute, stay here," he said as he pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her fully.

"OK," she agreed easily.

'You feel OK?" he asked as he let his fingers find the hem of her short silky dress.

"You going to ask me that daily?" she sighed in both exasperation and desire.

"I can up it to hourly if you are going to get sassy," he pinched her thigh.

"I would very much like to relocate this conversation," she suggested.

"Yeah?" he pulled her stocking-clad leg across his lap giving her the upper hand for a second.

She started to work on the buttons of his shirt as he investigated her stockings more closely.

"Sex doesn't fix everything," she said randomly as she guided his long fingers to the zipper at the back of her dress.

"I know that. I'm not trying to fix anything right this second, I just want you," he reasoned as he managed to lower the zipper one tooth at a time until Annie was nearly vibrating in his lap.

"You have me," she assured him and kissed him again.

This time he took heed her desire to relocate and stood with her in his arms for a second before she delightfully lowered her legs slowly to the floor and shimmied out of her dress. His fingers explored the lace and silk that barely covered her now and took her hand to lead her to bed. Halfway up to the loft she dropped his hand and turned around.

"Where are you going?" he said deliciously confused.

"To get the cupcake," she giggled.

The End of Episode 5


	26. Don't Stand So Close to Me Act 1

Don't Stand So Close to Me Act 1

Annie felt the vibration of the two phones simultaneously going off and it woke her quickly. She picked her head up from its spot on Auggie's chest and wiped quickly at the tiny bit of drool she left there leaving her hand warm against his body as she reached for her phone.

"Hello," she and Auggie mumbled at the same time.

"Yep," she said.

"Be right there," he replied and both hung up, each phone being dropped clunkily on their respective nightstand.

"What time is it?" Annie asked into the dark room.

"2:17," the talking clock responded when Auggie smacked it.

"Why do we do this job again?" Annie slid across the warm sheets to curl her body back over Auggie's for a minute, stealing a kiss before climbing over him and off to the bathroom.

***555***

Annie's hair was scraped back in a ponytail and no matter how hard he tried Auggie's bangs were going the wrong way when they arrived at the conference room with giant travel mugs of coffee.

"Thank you for getting here so quickly," Joan was fully dressed with hair and make-up perfect.

Annie rubbed at the caked sleep and eye make-up in the corner of her eye.

"What's up?" Auggie asked, his stubble distractingly sexy.

Joan pressed a button and Linda Cordeiro appeared on the screen behind her.

"Good morning," Linda said to the room.

"Morning," Annie and Auggie nodded in response.

"I've tracked 3 known associates of Korlova's for the past few days, got wind that something big is going down. The three of them were in Minsk, Rome and Barcelona but now they are all headed to the same place. It will mark the first time the 3 have been in the same city in 5 years and it can't be a coincidence," Linda reported.

"We want you to lead a small team, get eyes on them at first and if we need to round them up we will, but ultimately we want to watch and learn see where they lead us. These guys are pretty big fish, but they are not enough to take down Korlova."

"How big a team?" Auggie asked knowing they were only 6 including Joan.

"Six, but not me or Millie we will stay here and coordinate from Langley, so Auggie, you need 2 guys good at surveillance, Linda and Annie will be our field ops and you and Calvin will be liaisons on the ground," Joan explained.

Auggie nodded.

"Linda, you go ahead and catch your flight, you are already 6 hours behind," Joan disconnected the link.

"Where are we headed?" Annie realized they were not headed to Europe if Linda had to get back here to catch up.

"Auggie, who do you want? You can have anybody," Joan ignored Annie's question for the moment.

"Barber and Hollman," he said without question.

"If I say I assumed that was the case and have already alerted them, will you be mad?" Joan gave a small grin.

"I don't like being that predictable," Auggie shook his head.

"They'll meet you at the airfield," Joan handed Annie a file.

Annie opened the file and saw the dossiers of the 3 men they were tracking.

"They look like fine upstanding citizens," Annie sneered at the thugs.

"They've managed to evade capture for close to a decade of known arms deals, they are not to be underestimated," Joan cautioned.

"You haven't mentioned where we are going?" Auggie doubled back to Annie's question.

"I hope you are feeling nostalgic, you're heading to Medellin," Joan grinned.

TBC…


	27. Don't Stand So Close to Me Act 2

Don't Stand so Close to Me Act 2

"Putting the band back together," Barber greeted as Annie and Auggie boarded the private jet, they were getting used to flying this way.

"Hi Eric, Andrew," Annie greeted Barber and Hollman.

"Hi Annie," Hollman smiled over the lid of his large coffee.

"Sorry for the ungodly hour," Auggie smirked.

"We heard you two were involved, we figure we won't sleep for days," Barber sighed dramatically.

"Calvin and Linda are meeting us in country, so buckle up fellas," Annie stowed their go bags and led Auggie to a double wide seat, giving him the window.

"Everyone ready?" the Captain's voice filled the cabin.

"Yes, Sir," Annie hit the intercom over Auggie's head.

Within minutes they were off the ground and headed South.

"Normally I would recommend sleep, but we don't have a very long flight and we need to get you guys up to speed," Auggie sighed.

"Joan sent us the files on the guys we're tracking," Barber said.

"Good, and in a couple hours I can put a call into Calder, see if he has any assets on the ground we can call on," Annie mentioned.

"Good idea," Auggie nodded.

"What are you thinking? I'm thinking 2 teams," Annie suggested.

"Yeah, you me and Hollman in one van and Linda, Barber and Calvin in the other," he offered.

"That way we can scatter if needed," Annie clarified and the men in the cabin nodded in agreement.

***555***

"I am almost sad I won't be there with you," Calder teased into the conference line.

"Yeah, Medellin will not be the same without you," Auggie chuckled.

"I have a good asset, Joaquin Ramirez, I am texting you his details Walker, he and I have stayed in touch. He can help if needed with eyes, ears and translation. I already sent him photos of the targets," Calder noted.

"Great," Annie replied.

"And if you end up in deep trouble SOS and I can call out some not-so-above-board cavalry."

"We hope this is a watch and learn mission," Auggie mentioned.

"You and Walker in Colombia is bound to be problematic," Calder growled.

"We'll try to behave," Annie acquiesced.

"Call if you need me," and Calder was gone.

"What happened in Colombia?" Barber asked.

"He's being overly dramatic," Auggie waved it off.

"We had our first date," Annie announced and Auggie blushed slightly, a wry grin on his face.

"I don't think Calder knows about that," Auggie argued.

"What are you talking about, he bought the drinks," Annie teased.

"That was not our first date. And depending on your definition of date, it didn't even happen in Colombia," he volleyed back.

"We definitely do not have the same definition of date," Annie smiled.

"So the night in your guest house…."

"Was not a date. It was amazing, but it was not a date. Nor was drinks with Calder. Our first date was that little café we went to for dinner after the drinks with Calder," Annie explained.

"I wish I had known that at the time," Auggie frowned.

"Well, hopefully it is still there and we can have a second first date," Annie shrugged.

"I've missed you guys," Barber butted in and Annie startled when she realized there were other people on the plane.

***555***

Auggie had secured them a meeting space downtown that was off radar, but since this was just a surveillance mission they were using hotels for accommodation, scattered around town, but hotels instead of a safe house.

"Linda gets in at noon," Annie reported as she unpacked her toiletries and grabbed her tooth brush.

"Calvin will be here before that," Auggie confirmed checking his messages.

"So we have about a couple hours," Annie mentioned casually.

"Shower?" Auggie's smile quirked up on one side.

"You know me so well," Annie agreed happily.

"You start the water, I'll grab the towels," Auggie reached down and stripped his long sleeve tee shirt off.

Annie sucked in a little breath. She had seen Auggie shirtless countless times now, but it never stopped being exciting. She stood still and watched him move about the room for a second.

"Annie?" he asked when he didn't hear any water.

"Yeah? Sorry," she shook her head to clear it for a second.

"Tired?" he asked since they had a grand total of 2 hours sleep the night before.

"Not as much as you would think," she shook her head and met him halfway across the room, her lips on his and her fingers trailing delightfully over the warm skin he had just exposed.

"Hi," he smiled between kisses.

"Hi," she sighed as his hand found the button on her jeans.

The kisses intensified quickly and soon a naked Annie was climbing Auggie ln the middle of the room.

"Mmmmm, Annie…." He pulled back a little to get his breath.

"Sorry, you OK?"

"Just a little tired," she could feel a slight lagging in his limbs.

"Should we stop?" she asked confused and slightly flushed.

"No, god no. I just need a wall or a bed or a table, any flat surface of any kind," he kissed along the column of her neck.

She tugged on his left shoulder to turn him.

"Ten steps forward," she instructed and gauging for the size of his paces her back hit gently but securely against a wall on the count of ten.

"Good?" she asked when she locked her legs around his waist and kissed him again.

"So good," he agreed.

***555***

Annie and Barber were inspecting the set ups in the vans as Hollman, Calvin and Auggie went over the intel. Linda was enroute from the airport and Calder's asset had already spotted one of Korlova's men downtown.

"We're good," Annie reported as she wiped her hands on the back of her pants.

She grinned when Auggie looked up at her assessment and there was the slightest tinge of pink on the tips of his ears.

"Good?" he repeated.

"So good," she responded as she found his fingers and snagged his index finger around her own.

"Good," he nodded with a laugh.

"What was that?" Calvin whispered to Hollman.

"I stopped trying to figure them out a few years ago," Hollman said as he scrolled the message boards Calder's asset preferred.

The door cracked open and Linda slipped through. Considering she had been in transport for over 10 hours she looked perfectly put together in a way Annie both admired and envied. Annie looked fine, but Linda looked confident.

"Good trip?" Auggie asked as the woman greeted the rest of the team.

"Had worse," she shrugged and accepted the coffee Calvin offered.

"OK, you Calvin and Barber are heading to the West side of town, we will take the East. We know Hector is in country," Auggie reported and Annie held up the file on Hector Mersch.

"We expect the other 2 are not far behind," Annie explained as comm equipment was doled out and tested.

"What is our directive?" Linda asked getting caught up.

"Watch and learn, do not engage," Annie explained.

"You planning to take your own advice?" Linda asked before catching herself.

Annie didn't take the bait, partly because she wanted to get on better ground with Linda and partly because she couldn't really argue with the sentiment even if it was kind of snarky.

"Yes, as much as it may pain me, I plan to stay in the van," Annie grinned although there wasn't much mirth behind it.

"The van is fun, you guys should appreciate the van more," Barber said lamely in an attempt to quell the sudden tension.

"What color are the vans?" Auggie asked suddenly.

"Ours is maroon and yours is dark blue," Barber supplied.

Auggie nodded, glad it wasn't gray.

"Let's go, we can chat from our positions," Auggie found Annie's shoulder and then quickly her elbow.

"Game on," Barber agreed.

TBC….


	28. Don't Stand So Close to Me Act 3

Don't Stand So Close to Me Act 3

"I am literally in a van down by the river," Barber's voice filled the van Annie and Auggie were sharing with Hollman.

"Have any motivational words?" Annie snorted.

"None," Barber lamented and crunched on something.

"We have him," Hollman said suddenly as Hector appeared on their video feed.

"Is he going into the Plaza?" Linda asked.

"No, it looks like he's headed for Orquideorama," Annie sighed.

"We can't lose him, Annie, the other two have not shown yet," Barber pointed out.

"Yep, I'll continue on foot," Annie confirmed as she shook her hair out and grabbed her tourist bag of tricks.

"We are not engaging him," Linda reiterated.

"I know, we're just going to play tourist," Annie repeated.

"We?" Auggie grinned.

"Hope you wore your walking shoes," Annie chuckled.

"You're clear," Hollman noted they could exit the van without suspicion.

Annie stripped off her trench coat, the day had warmed up enough for the sun dress she chose for just this situation. Auggie was down to a tee shirt and jeans and with their sunglasses and Annie's wide-brimmed hat, they definitely looked like tourists.

"You know what's strange?" Auggie asked as they moved slowly but purposefully towards hector's position.

"What's that?" Annie asked, her eyes peeled.

"After everything we've been through the past 2 years, I feel the same exact level of giddiness right now as I did that day we danced here," he realized.

"Yeah?" she said with surprise.

"Am I crazy?"

"Possibly, but not about this. I feel the same Auggie, maybe even more so. We had no idea then what we could truly be, we were…. I got him. Kiss me," she whispered the last bit.

Auggie did as he was told, pulled her close with a flourish and kissed her deeply.

"We're outside," she teased and pulled back, play acting and rotating their position so she could get a better angle.

"I don't see anybody watching," he teased back and pulled her again, shifting their perspective again and she found the right path and led him that way.

"I want to see the bougainvillea," she read the signs quickly and moved them along.

Hector seemed oblivious to them, but he did cut across a small path that would have been very obvious for them to try and follow. Annie was able to stay on the path they were on and double back, tucking both her and Auggie behind some impressive fauna. Hector was keeping an eye on his watch, a bulge under his shirt certain to conceal a weapon.

"Gun," Annie whispered, but her tone indicated it was informative not a warning.

Auggie squeezed her elbow to acknowledge.

Within seconds two men joined Hector, they were the other two known associates Linda had id'd – Hans and Maxim. They spoke in rapid fire French, which confused Annie for a second until she remembered one of them was Hungarian, one Swiss and one Russian. They likely all knew some French.

Annie heard them set a meet with a buyer for 6:00 pm at a restaurant downtown, she couldn't figure out what they were planning to sell, but they had time to get in position to find out. The three men dispersed in different directions, after Annie was certain she was safe she relayed to the van's.

"All 3 are here and on foot heading out of Orquideorama. We have their meet info and are on route back to the van."

"10-4," Hollman replied.

***555***

Hollman pulled up the address of the meeting location and with 2 hours before the meet each member of the team was able to go in and place a listening device at various spots throughout. Annie sipped her wine and mapped all the ins and outs of the place for Linda who would be on site for the actual meet.

"I wish it was us," Annie sighed.

"Can't take the risk that Hector would recognize us from earlier. This is why working with a team is a good thing," Auggie said rationally.

"I know. I'm just not used to being the one in the van."

"It's not so bad, Barber will bring snacks," Auggie assured.

They finished the wine and headed out one door as Calvin made his way in to place a tracker in the men's room.

"Good work everyone," Auggie commended as he monitored all the various listening devices, Calvin taking lead on the visual surveillance they were also able to get.

"This will also give us visual," Barber presented a necklace to Linda who slipped it on.

"Does it look OK?" Linda asked Annie, one woman to another.

"Yeah, maybe better with your hair up," Annie offered some hair picks for a quick twist.

"Definitely," Linda smiled in agreement as they shared the small mirror, "thanks."

"Good luck," Annie nodded.

***555***

With their targets all set to be in the same spot the team consolidated to one van, Hollman in the driver's seat with Auggie shot gun and the other 3 in the back watching and listening on the various monitors.

"How you doing?" Hollman asked quietly as he pulled them into a safe spot a few blocks from the restaurant.

"Good," Auggie nodded.

"I'm glad," Hollman kept his eyes straight ahead.

"Thanks," Auggie smiled.

The words were few, but Auggie could hear how genuinely concerned Hollman was. He had always been the counter to the overly-effusive Eric Barber and Auggie appreciated that about him.

"Guys?" Annie's voice broke in.

"Yeah?" Auggie turned back.

"I think we have a problem," she got closer and touched Auggie's arm.

She negotiated his tall frame out of the front seat and into the back with the rest of them.

"What?"

"Hans isn't at the meet," Annie said.

"What?" Auggie replied.

"Linda is in place and only Hector and Maxim are there," Annie explained.

"Maybe Hans is running late, we know they are travelling independently," Auggie reminded her of the earlier meet.

"It doesn't feel right," she bit her thumb nail.

"OK, hang tight," she put his hand on the chair Calvin just vacated and watched as he got the headphones on and began scanning Hummingbird.

It took 45 long seconds.

"He's way across town," Auggie said with a frown.

"He's not running late, he's somewhere else. A double cross? Or is this part of the plan?" Annie worked through it.

"Linda," Calvin communicated through the comms, "heads up, Hans is across town, we are trying to figure out what is going on."

Linda took a sip of water to indicate she got the message.

"I'm going after Hans," Annie said as she changed once again into black leggings and a jacket, swapping her tourist sandals for sturdier boots.

"OK," Auggie nodded, unhappy with the idea of her alone again.

"There's a car two blocks East," Barber handed her some keys, "yellow daisy on the dash."

"Thanks. I'll be fine," she said the last bit to Auggie and kissed him soundly despite the audience in the van.

Then she was gone.

***555***

Calvin and Barber watched and listened in the restaurant until Annie got in place. They got photos and captures of the face and voice of the man Hector and Maxim met, but nothing came up in facial recognition. The guy was young.

When it came time for the transaction Barber cocked his head to one side.

"Did we assume our guys were selling something?" Barber asked.

"Yeah, why?" Auggie turned.

"Because it appears they are buying something."

"Annie, Korlova's men are buying not selling," Auggie relayed.

"They're leaving," Linda reported slightly confused as the transaction only went one way.

"Hans must be getting the merch," Calvin replied.

"I'm in position, I can see Hans and I am sending photos of everyone approaching," Annie reported in.

A shrill cell phone ring brought her attention to an older man, unassuming. He answered, said a few words in what appeared to be German and approached Hans. He opened the small briefcase he had with him.

"This is our seller," Annie sent the photo again.

Annie continued to snap photos of the meet. The briefcase held a small canister, the kind of canister Annie always hated to see. The two men spoke quickly and quietly, she only caught a few words of caution.

"Who is this guy?" Annie whispered sharply.

"Nothing in the database, but we found him on Google," Auggie sighed.

"What?"

"He's a biochemist from the University of Marburg in Germany," Auggie pinched his nose.

"Is this a bioweapon?" Annie asked.

"Could be," Auggie replied knowing what she was going to say next.

"We can't let Hans leave…"

TBC….


	29. Don't Stand So Close to Me Act 4

Don't Stand So Close to Me Act 4

"Linda, follow Hector. Annie stay with Hans, back at least a block though. We will keep eyes on Maxim from here," Auggie was running point on all three targets from the back of the now moving van.

"Annie we are heading in your direction, the weapon is our key objective," he reiterated.

"Roger," she said quietly as she took her position 1 block back and on the opposite side of the street from Hans.

It was possible Hector had seen her and Auggie kissing yesterday, but they were well hidden by the time Hans arrived, she felt confident she could move freely.

"Maxim got in a cab," Calvin reported.

"So did Hector," Linda chimed in, "I am in a cab behind him."

"Annie we are 4 blocks ahead of you in the direction Hans is headed," Auggie reported.

"Got it," she affirmed.

A potential bioweapon was in a 4 block sting between the van and Annie and she moved quickly to contain it. She knew Auggie wouldn't lose Hans with Hummingbird, but still she felt the pressure to contain the situation resting on her.

***555***

"He's still on Calle 9, we're heading right into downtown," Annie said.

"Is he turning it around here in Medellin? Is there another buyer?" Auggie puzzled in her ear.

"I think these guys are heading to the airport," Calvin said of the other 2 he was monitoring on the various screens.

"I agree," Linda chimed in.

"Find out where they are headed," Auggie instructed.

"Hans is entering a hotel, Le Parc," Annie reported and Auggie pulled up every camera he could from that place, security, fire, elevators everything.

"Calvin get us a room in that hotel," Auggie shouted.

"OK, he is at the front desk, paying cash," Barber relayed.

"Hollman loop around to meet Annie," Auggie interrupted.

"Elevator to 5th floor, looks like 512 or 515 written on the key envelope. Went left out of the elevator," Barber narrated.

"Reservation under Paulson," Calvin completed his assignment.

"Annie pick me up at the van," Auggie felt the vehicle slow to a stop.

"Any time," she smiled and within seconds she was tapping on the back door.

***555***

Annie approached the front desk of Le Parc with a smile, a handsome man on her arm and a cover story about a cancelled flight to explain their lack of luggage and last minute reservation. The clerk seemed not the least bit interested and Annie wondered if she hadn't told the story if the hotel staff would have assumed she was a hooker.

Annie paid for the room, took the key envelope and some information on a local club the hotel partnered with and turned towards the elevator bank. She nearly walked right into Hans. She said excuse me in Spanish and maneuvered Auggie around the target, tapping a warning on his hand. Once at the elevator bank, Annie turned around and watched Hans leave the hotel.

"He just left," she said into her comm.

"We got him, on foot heading up the street," Barber responded.

"Auggie, what do we do? He didn't have the case, but he could have transferred the canister, it was small, it could be in his pocket?"

"He went into a bar a couple doors up the street. I'm going to follow him," Barber said.

"No, Eric you are not a field agent," Annie cautioned.

"Annie, I can order a beer in Spanish, I cannot break into a hotel room. You toss his room, I'll keep an eye on him in the bar. If I see any sign of the weapon I will holler."

Annie turned to Auggie who nodded with a small smile.

"OK, but the first sign something is off you head for the door," Annie groaned and smacked the button for the elevator.

The elevator was clunky and slow, as they waited for the door to close Auggie pulled Annie close and kissed her deeply.

"Cameras," she murmured against his lips.

"Don't care," he kissed her again.

The ding as they arrived on floor five made them both stiffen.

"Want me to be the lookout?" Auggie asked with a grin and a last quick kiss.

Annie just smirked and gave him her arm.

"You can be the 'listen out'," she offered.

"Deal."

They turned left out of the elevator and room 512 was 2 doors down. Annie knocked and called 'housekeeping' in Spanish, when a woman replied she pulled Auggie into an alcove and waited for the woman to answer an empty knock and retreat.

"515 it is," Annie whispered with a dry chuckle as she slipped her gloves on.

After repeating the housekeeping bit a few doors down to no response Annie put her back against Auggie's, literally using him as a shield against any potential passersby as she removed her lock picks from her boot and went to work on the door.

"Hans is settled with a beer, no sign of a meet or the weapon," Barber reported from the bar.

"Good work," Auggie replied.

"We're in," Annie announced and she scanned the hallway before she and Auggie slipped into the room.

"What do we have?" Auggie asked.

"Small room, stay here, keep an ear out," Annie positioned him just inside the door.

Annie started at the small closet which was empty. Hans also checked in with no luggage. The bathroom had been used, the toilet seat up, a hand towel crumpled on the counter and a bar of soap unwrapped, the paper in the trash. Annie felt along the underside of the counter and mirror.

"Bathroom's clear," she reported.

Auggie nodded, keeping his ear to the hall.

Annie moved to the large piece of furniture in the room, an armoire that is certain to hold drawers, a TV, possibly a fridge and a safe. Something catches her eye.

"The case, on the floor next to the armoire," she reports.

"Careful," Auggie betrayed his silence with a whispered warning.

Annie lifted the case carefully on to the bed. The click of the latches is loud in the quiet room and Auggie can hear the lid creak open.

"Empty," Annie says with dread.

She leaves the case and heads back to the armoire, opening the doors. The drawers are empty, but a false panel reveals a safe. Annie snaps a photo and sends it to Calvin and Hollman in the van. While she waits for them to get her a master code she puts the case back in place and sweeps the rest of the room.

"Annie, 56565534," Hollman reads and then repeats.

"Got it," she replies as she enters the master override into the mechanical safe.

The hiss of the release straightens Auggie's spine.

"Is it there?" he asked.

"Yes, but it isn't alone. Guys, we have a bomb," Annie reported coolly although her heart rate was up and she could feel a sudden layer of sweat on her entire body.

"Here," Auggie removed a Swiss Army knife from his pocket and tossed it towards her.

Annie quickly located the small scissors and went to work on disarming the bomb.

"You got this?" Calvin asked when she didn't ask for help.

"Think so, it is a pretty simple bomb," Annie shrugged as she focused on the jumble of wires.

"Hans is leaving the bar," Barber reported.

"Annie?" Auggie asked a million things in that one word question.

"Got it," she sighed as she snipped the final wire to the timer rendering the bomb useless.

Annie removed the canister, closed up the safe, returned the armoire to its original state and slipped the canister in her pocket, certain to put it on the side of her body Auggie did not prefer to walk on in an effort to avoid any trauma between here and the van.

"Entering the hotel," Barber reported.

"Find us a back way out," Annie asked as she moved past Auggie and looked out the peep hole.

"End of the hall, stairs," Calvin reported.

Annie led Auggie out to the empty hallway and into the stairwell. They made it down to the ground floor without incident, but there Annie was faced with an emergency exit certain to sound an alarm and what looked like a kitchen entrance.

"Follow my lead?" she asked and squeezed his hand.

"Always," he promised.

"Trust me?" she asked as she removed his hand from her elbow, folded up his cane and tucked it in the back of his pants under his tee shirt.

Annie knew she was putting Auggie in a vulnerable position, but the look on his face assured her that he was willing to go along. He nodded his assent.

Annie shook out her hair messy, untucked her shirt and undid several of the buttons. She walked them back from the door and began laughing and talking loudly in Spanish, reaching up and kissing him frequently. Soon the pair stumbled through the door into a kitchen full of big Colombian men.

Annie laughed louder and kissed Auggie fiercely.

"Excuse me," one of the men said in Spanish.

Annie proceeded to play act their way out of the kitchen, explaining they were on vacation with her parents and they really just wanted to go out and party, so they were trying to sneak out of the hotel. She endured a few unpleasant leers, but soon one of the staff opened a back door and told her where all the hot clubs were. She got Auggie out the door and off the loading dock without raising any suspicions by keeping her hands on him at all times, for his part he kept his eyes downcast and the effect was one of lust or alcohol, but in either case they were out the door and around the corner.

"Hans is off the elevator, he is going to find that missing canister soon, guys, move," Barber said emphatically.

Auggie reached back for his cane, Annie gave him her arm and they moved swiftly through the alley to the van. Calvin popped the back door and Annie placed Auggie's hands on the frame, he hoisted himself in and she hopped in behind him, Hollman took off before the second door latched. Annie handed over the canister to a waiting Barber, who secured it in a foam lined case and then she turned to her partner and launched herself into his arms.

"Nice work," he whispered in her ear.

"You too," she nodded against his neck.

TBC….


	30. Don't Stand So Close to Me Act 5

Don't Stand So Close to Me Act 5

Author's Note: The science here is all totally fiction. If you are looking for science may I suggest Neil Degrasse Tyson.

***555***

The team flew back overnight and delivered the canister to Langley without even a stop at home. The canister went straight to DST and all the agents debriefed as they awaited analysis. Finally Joan called them to the conference room around noon.

"What you intercepted was not a bioweapon, but what our analysts believe is a component in a bioweapon, it is an agent that binds toxins and our folks have never seen it before. They are excited to analyze further, but the initial results indicate this could work in formulating stealthier and more deadly bioweapons," Joan reported.

"The professor who sold it?" Annie asked.

"Already in custody," Joan smiled and Annie nodded her approval.

"You did fine work, we have the professor, the chemical agent and good audio and visual footage of Korlova's 3 KAs," Joan pointed out.

"That audio/visual will help pick them up on Hummingbird faster," Auggie added for the room.

"Indeed, it was great work all around, no one blew their covers and while I did not enjoy the part of the debrief where Barber went into the field," Joan looked pointedly at the big guy who just blushed and ducked his head, "it was a well-executed plan."

"Thank you," Barber mumbled.

"Hollman, Barber you were scheduled to be in Colombia at least one more day, your boss knows you are back but you are free to go home. My team, get some rest, see you tomorrow," Joan turned on a very high heel and was gone.

***555***

"Shower?" Annie asked as they stumbled through the door of the loft.

"Yes," Auggie nodded and rubbed at his eyes.

"Was it really just yesterday we were showering in Colombia?" she laughed.

"Time flies when you're diffusing bombs," Auggie shrugged.

"We were a little caught off guard…" Annie began.

"You were great Annie, you always are, but this time you were also… I don't know what word I am looking for: tempered, guarded, cautious all sound bad, but what I mean is, you got the job done and it was plenty exciting, but you kept us all in the loop."

"Especially you?"

"Yes, especially me," Auggie grinned.

"I like the idea of a cover boyfriend who I can just kiss against a wall or a tree whenever I need him to help me blend in," Annie teased as she tugged him into the bathroom.

"I will never ever complain about you kissing me, but I hope I get to be a more integral part of the team than that. I realize you will almost always get the bomb diffusal job and I can only be a listen out…" he started and Annie pulled him close and kissed him hard, tugging his shirt off over his head before kissing him again.

"Auggie, you were amazing. You were tailing 3 bad guys, running a 5 person team and liaising with Langley. We would have been dead in the water without Hummingbird and we would have lost Hans and the chemical without you. You are an integral part of this team, both at the CIA and right here in this shower," Annie said all of this as she managed to remove his pants.

"Since when did you get so good at inspirational speeches?" he smirked as he found the hem of her shirt and pulled it up and off her body.

"Since I remembered how much fun it is to work together," she admitted and brought her bare torso directly in contact with his.

He held her close, stroked his warm hands along her bare back, finding the small clasp of her bra and removing the last obstacle.

"I'm sorry we didn't get to have our second first date," he murmured, his voice taking on a drastically different tone.

"Mmmmm, we should do that though, here. Drinks, Friday at 8?"

"I'd like that," he pulled back from her skin and she looked into his eyes.

Me too," she smiled before she kissed him.

The End of Episode 6

NOTE: Due to a business trip and other assorted frivolity next week, I will be on hiatus. Episode 7 will begin on Monday March 9th. Have a great week!


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